Recently, however, some scholars have expressed different views that employees can effectively reduce their work pressure and boredom by hanging out on the internet, which also helps employees to temporarily leave their jobs. It can even help employees recover their working resources and make their thinking and cognition more flexible. Lim and Chen(20 12) also pointed out that employees can improve their work efficiency when they browse web pages unrelated to work during working hours. To sum up, Internet loitering is a double-edged sword, which has positive and negative effects on employees, so its influence on employees' work behavior needs further exploration.
According to the Conservation of Resources Theory (COR), Internet loitering can be regarded as a way to restore cognitive resources: when employees suffer from mental or cognitive fatigue due to heavy work, easy browsing of websites unrelated to work may give them a chance to rest. Sonnentag, Cheng and Parker(2022) pointed out that employees can temporarily leave their jobs by doing things unrelated to their jobs during their working hours. This enables them to supplement their internal resources, help them recover the cognitive resources consumed by work, and let employees relax temporarily, so as to recover from stress or negative emotions. Browsing interesting or entertaining web pages at work can usually change employees' mood and even improve their positive mood (lim&; Chen, 20 12)。 Previous research on creativity has repeatedly pointed out that positive emotions and psychological state are indispensable factors of creativity. In addition, according to the research of Sonnentag and Starzyk(20 15), in order to produce active behavior, individuals must be enthusiastic about their work. Therefore, only when individuals recover their own state can they concentrate more on their work and show active behavior in their work.
Tsai(2023) used the theory of resource conservation to study the influence of internet loitering on creativity and active behavior. Previous studies have shown that the workplace environment can effectively promote creativity and work behavior, so this study also examines whether the workplace environment (workplace quality and promoting informal interaction) can regulate the relationship between employees' online loitering and their subsequent creativity and active behavior. In this study, 94 full-time employees in China were investigated by empirical sampling twice a day for 10 working days.
The results show that employees' online loitering can positively predict creativity and active behavior; Promoting informal interaction and environmental workplace quality can enhance the positive relationship between employees' online loitering and creativity and active behavior.
Is fishing at work good or bad?
Personnel and organizational psychology
2023-0 1- 13 19:00
pay close attention
"You see, I just started this thing recently, and it works!" "The link is sent!"
"Have you seen Weibo hot search recently? That ... "
Have you ever done fishing activities such as brushing Weibo, visiting Taobao and reading novels during work? With the popularity of the Internet, in addition to surfing the Internet in daily life, employees also use the Internet to obtain information unrelated to work or play online games in the workplace. Such behavior is becoming more and more common in our office. In Intel's survey of 200 human resources executives, nearly 80% people think that employees' use of mobile devices such as mobile phones will bring a lot of unnecessary interference to the working environment.
Fishing at work can be called Cyberloafing in psychology, which refers to employees' online behaviors unrelated to work during working hours. Related behaviors can include internet activities such as browsing unrelated web pages, downloading unrelated materials and information, sending private emails, shopping online, chatting and listening to music. In the early research, scholars usually regarded Internet loitering as a kind of counterproductive work behavior, that is, it did not help or even harm organizational productivity, because employees did not deal with work-related affairs during working hours, but browsed web pages unrelated to work or handled private affairs. In addition to reducing working hours, most enterprise managers also believe that network loitering is an abuse of network resources, which will lead to decreased work efficiency and waste of resources.
Recently, however, some scholars have expressed different views that employees can effectively reduce their work pressure and boredom by hanging out on the internet, which also helps employees to temporarily leave their jobs. It can even help employees recover their working resources and make their thinking and cognition more flexible. Lim and Chen(20 12) also pointed out that employees can improve their work efficiency when they browse web pages unrelated to work during working hours. To sum up, Internet loitering is a double-edged sword, which has positive and negative effects on employees, so its influence on employees' work behavior needs further exploration.
According to the Conservation of Resources Theory (COR), Internet loitering can be regarded as a way to restore cognitive resources: when employees suffer from mental or cognitive fatigue due to heavy work, easy browsing of websites unrelated to work may give them a chance to rest. Sonnentag, Cheng and Parker(2022) pointed out that employees can temporarily leave their jobs by doing things unrelated to their jobs during their working hours. This enables them to supplement their internal resources, help them recover the cognitive resources consumed by work, and let employees relax temporarily, so as to recover from stress or negative emotions. Browsing interesting or entertaining web pages at work can usually change employees' mood and even improve their positive mood (lim&; Chen, 20 12)。 Previous research on creativity has repeatedly pointed out that positive emotions and psychological state are indispensable factors of creativity. In addition, according to the research of Sonnentag and Starzyk(20 15), in order to produce active behavior, individuals must be enthusiastic about their work. Therefore, only when individuals recover their own state can they concentrate more on their work and show active behavior in their work.
Tsai(2023) used the theory of resource conservation to study the influence of internet loitering on creativity and active behavior. Previous studies have shown that the workplace environment can effectively promote creativity and work behavior, so this study also examines whether the workplace environment (workplace quality and promoting informal interaction) can regulate the relationship between employees' online loitering and their subsequent creativity and active behavior. In this study, 94 full-time employees in China were investigated by empirical sampling twice a day for 10 working days.
The results show that employees' online loitering can positively predict creativity and active behavior; Promoting informal interaction and environmental workplace quality can enhance the positive relationship between employees' online loitering and creativity and active behavior.
When an organization provides a high-quality working environment, it can motivate employees to have more creative ideas and positive behaviors. For example, in Google Office, employees can freely arrange their own workspace, create an innovative atmosphere, and have a space for rest and interaction (Carter et al, 202 1). When employees have autonomy over the environment, they are happy at work, can concentrate on generating creative ideas and be more active at work.
Secondly, if the organization provides a space to promote communication and interaction, employees will have the opportunity to communicate and discuss openly without restrictions. Therefore, when the company provides good environmental workplace quality and promotes interaction, employees can work in an environment that allows them to rest, relieve stress and interact freely (Carter et al, 202 1). Specifically, when employees encounter bottlenecks or exhaustion of inspiration, they can exchange ideas with colleagues and friends on social media by hanging out on the internet, which helps them to get rid of their work temporarily and collect and organize their own ideas. In addition, exchanging opinions with friends on social media can help them get new information and come up with more innovative ideas or new methods, which is conducive to improving their subsequent creativity and proactive behavior.