The antecedents of cyberloafing: A case study in an Iranian copper industry

Cyberloafing has reported to increasingly become a serious threat to organizational performance and efficiency. It is expected that cyberloafing remain at the locus of management concern since organizational reliance upon internet use at work is evermore increasing and will continue to increase for the foreseeable future. Motivations of cyberloafing have hitherto been explored from a diversity of perspectives of which deviant behavior has remained to be one of the most cited terrains. This paper builds upon earlier studies and models explicating the motivations of cyberloafing – the cyberloafing antecedents – and verifies one of the most developed, recent and renowned theoretical frameworks of cyberloafing in an Iranian copper refinery firm. The findings of this research adds further theoretical credibility by identifying that behavioral attitudes upon cyberloafing, subjective norms and ability to hide cyberloafing are among the main antecedents of cyberlaofing. This paper adds further theoretical support to the theory of planned behavior and adds additional understanding from an under-researched setting to this nascent management realm.