Participative leadership and employees’ cyberloafing: A self-concept-based theory perspective

The antecedents of employees’ cyberloafing (internet use for nonwork purposes during office hours) have become a burgeoning research topic. This research therefore explores how and when participative leadership serves as an important antecedent to employees’ cyberloafing. Drawing upon self-concept-based theory, we hypothesize that participative leadership can reduce the cyberloafing of employees with a high need for power by increasing their organization-based self-esteem (OBSE). Analyzing survey data from 212 employee-coworker dyads, we have found that participative leadership is positively related to employees’ OBSE, which, in turn, is negatively related to employees’ cyberloafing. Moreover, employees’ need for power strengthens the relationship between participative leadership and employees’ OBSE as well as the indirect relationship between participative leadership and employees’ cyberloafing through their OBSE. These relationships are significant (versus nonsignificant) when employees’ need for power is high (versus low). Accordingly, this research identifies a novel predictor of employees’ cyberloafing and offers insights for organizational leaders aiming to manage employees’ cyberloafing wisely.