MY DIGITAL TUG-OF-WAR: BALANCING NORMS, CYBERSLACKING, TECH-SAVVINESS, AND DIGITAL WELL-BEING

Abstract

Digitization of the workplace has exposed employees to online distractions, resulting in cyberslacking, using the internet during working hours for non-work-related activities. This paper draws on the Social Norms Theory and the Digital Well-Being Framework to explore how normative factors and personal digital resources influence cyberslacking, thereby better understanding the drivers and regulators of this behavior. Particularly, the research explores the impact of descriptive norms (conceptions of the prevalence of a behavior) and injunctive norms (conceptions of social approval) on cyberslacking, including tech-savviness as a mediating variable and digital well-being as a moderating resource. The sample size was 330 employees of the public sector in Pakistan who met specific eligibility criteria. The structural equation modeling results indicate that both descriptive and injunctive norms have a significant effect on promoting cyberslacking behavior. Furthermore, tech-savviness mediates between social norms and cyberslacking, implying that the digital competence of employees enhances their capabilities to respond to normative cues. Notably, digital well-being was expected to buffer the relationship between social norms and cyberslacking, but in our empirical test, it amplified it, suggesting that digital well-being is not only boundary defining resource, but as one that allows more assured, confident, and normalized interactions with technology. The research will contribute to the theory by combining the Social Norms Theory with the Digital Well-Being Framework, which will provide an overview of how external social factors interplay with internal digital self-regulation to influence cyberslacking. In practice, the findings imply that organizations can restructure workplace norms, clarify managerial disapproval, direct tech-savviness to productive purposes, and promote digital well-being by encouraging workplace wellness programs.