Bureaucratic Culture and Staff Cyberlofing: An analysis of the Mediating Role of Organizational Laziness (Case Study: Governmental Organizations of Lorestan Province)

Abstract

Introduction Nowadays, the benefits of using computer systems and local area networks have become an essential tool for the success of managers and are common in most developed countries. In particular, the Internet has become an essential part of the working and daily lives of many employees, and organizations, through the activities of various departments, gain the opportunities and potentials provided by the Internet very quickly and use them to achieve their goals accordingly (Machado et al., 2014). In today’s constantly changing world, the Internet enables organizations to lower their costs and provide better products and services. In addition to the benefits it has created in organizations, the Internet is also an effective business tool; it has also made the world's largest entertainment tool available to employees (Razmi et al, 2018). However, the staff’s personal and unnecessary use of the Internet, which is referred to as cyberloafing, has become a major concern for managers of organizations. Materials and Methods The study is an applied research in terms of its purpose and descriptive-correlational in terms of research type. The statistical population of the study was a total of 1317 employees of organizations located in the city of Khorramabad, Lorestan province. Based on the Morgan table, a sample size of 297 was selected by the stratified random sampling method. In order to measure the variables of the research, a standard questionnaire was used. The validity and reliability of the questionnaire were confirmed by using the content validity method and Cronbach’s alpha. For data analysis, the structural equation modeling and PLS software were used. Discussion of Results and Conclusions The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of bureaucratic culture on employee cyberlooping among the personnel of governmental departments of Lorestan Province with the mediating role of organizational laziness. The first hypothesis was developed in such a way that bureaucratic culture had a positive and significant effect on employee cyberbullying. The results of the analysis of the research data showed that the first hypothesis was confirmed. In other words, bureaucratic culture, by allowing the minimum and regardless of the principle of competition and continuous improvement of the quality and quantity of work has made a lot of extra time available to employees and this has caused inappropriate use of the organization’s communication network for entertainment and personal work. The second hypothesis of the research was that bureaucratic culture had a positive and significant effect on the organizational laziness of employees in governmental organizations in Lorestan province. The results of this study confirmed this hypothesis. In other words, in a bureaucratic culture, clear tasks, hierarchical powers, strict rules, discipline, low employee engagement, and formal and hierarchical relationships are all factors that undermine employee freedom of action and creativity. This causes employees to become lazy on their own. In fact, people might not see any challenge in performing their duties and prefer to refrain from doing repetitive tasks and work under any pretext. The third hypothesis of this study was developed in such a way that organizational laziness had a positive and significant effect on employee’s cyberbullying. The results of the analysis of the research data confirmed this hypothesis. In other words, organizational laziness and not paying attention to the central result and output of employees and leaving them to do the minimum that ultimately leads to the spread of organizational laziness could created so much job-free time in the organization and members of the organization might fill this extra time by misusing the organization’s Internet. The fourth hypothesis, which is, in fact, the main purpose of the present study, was that a bureaucratic culture increases the misbehavior of cyberbullying through the mediating variable of organizational laziness. The results of the analysis of the collected data confirmed this hypothesis. In fact, bureaucratic culture provides employees with a lot of extra time by defining the minimum work floor and regardless of the outputs and maximum potentials which in turn time leads to the spread of laziness in the organization. As a result, the employees escape boredom by misusing the organization’s communication network resources.

Keywords

• bureaucratic culture
• staff cyberlofing
• organizational laziness