The Impacts of Internet Monitoring on Employees' Cyberloafing and Organizational Citizenship Behavior: A Longitudinal Field Quasi-Experiment.

This article investigates the effects of internet monitoring on employees' cyberloafing—defined as non-work-related internet use during work hours—and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), which refers to voluntary, extra-role behaviors beneficial to the organization. Through a longitudinal field quasi-experiment at a Portuguese software company, the study found that internet monitoring initially reduced cyberloafing by increasing employees' concerns about potential formal sanctions and information privacy risks. However, this deterrent effect diminished after four months without actual sanctions being enforced, while the negative impact on employees’ OCB, particularly OCB directed toward the organization (OCBO), persisted longer. The research highlights that both sanction concerns and information privacy concerns mediate the reduction in cyberloafing, whereas trust in the organization mediates the decline in OCBO. The findings suggest that internet monitoring may have unintended side effects on employee behavior and recommend using monitoring primarily as a feedback tool rather than solely as a deterrent mechanism.