Cyberloafing

Cyberloafing: A Costly Problem

A significant focus in today's corporate culture is the ability to balance the stresses and demands of one's work as well as the stresses and demands of one's personal life. Though technology has assisted many in maximizing the efficiency of handling one's personal life, the business world, including global business and competition from global challengers has also put stresses and demands on the corporate players, such that "there are not enough hours in ones' day". Globalized business has also created a 24-hour business day, and the different global business cultures and practices have, in addition, created and enforced a 7 day work week in many industries. Cyberloafing has become a large problem in various companies. How does one company deal with so many employees going on the Internet, and not focusing on the work at hand? Some companies have banned certain websites, such as AOl and Chat rooms. There are even websites that have boards dedicated to complaining or talking about company issues, sort of "Airing Dirty Laundry". Team A believes it is important to keep employees happy; banning these websites at work can cause retaliation issues. We believe employees should have down time and a place to go inside the work environment. Team A's proposed solution is to open an in-house Cyber Cafй to be used before and after work as well as during breaks. This would keep employees happy, and give them the down time needed in a stressful work environment.

A cyber cafe would create a personal level environment to handle some limited personal business. Such an environment would allow for more focus by the staff during their intended working hours, and further allow for a less stressed and more dedicated group of staff members. By having this outlet available for use, and with the encouragement of management to utilize it, they can attend to many personal tasks during these breaks, leaving their minds to be free to focus on the corporate business when at their desks. The company would also benefit by having a more focused, more energized workforce, in addition to reaping the benefits of increased employee morale and, as such, increased employee retention. Such benefits also extend into using as an additional employee perk during recruitment of new talent.

The development of this concept was based on research done through the interview process as well as literature search and review. Conclusions and paths were developed upon analysis of the information and data derived during the research and information data gathering process.

For team A's proposal of cyber cafes in the work place to reduce cyber loafing; the Primary source of information obtained was through phone interviews with managers from 5 different companies. Primary research according to Wikipedia is: (also called field research) involves the collection of data that doesn't already exist. In other words, collecting data about one subject that matter that is relatively new. To find primary information on work place cafйs reducing cyber loafing, Team A had to conduct research through interviewing qualified candidates regarding the subject matter.

The five different mangers interviewed were top managers for fortune 500 companies such as: New York and Company, United Airlines, The American Medical Association, Beneficial, and The Peninsula Hotel. The managers interviewed were either provided company laptops or used a company desk-top computer. The AMA and UA had web access to any site but, when used for things other than work, a warning would come up on their computer letting him or her know that their bosses would be notified. They felt that this detoured cyber loafing about 15% but felt that it was not that effective. NYC and The Peninsula had restrictions to only work related websites and emailing which in turn restricts cyber loafing. Therefore, all time spent on computers was work related. Beneficial had no limitation whatsoever. However, management felt that curbing cyber loafing would benefit the company. The only places that had cyber cafйs were the Peninsula and the AMA. The AMA provides the cafй as a tool for medical students and employees and The Peninsula provides a cafй for customers and employees. Both companies saw an increase in productivity by an increase of 25 % and additional revenues of 46% brought in from the cyber cafйs being established.

NYC has no access and no cafй. Beneficial had complete access. The questions the interviewer asked included statistics as well. Two the managers were able to provide research data that their companies actually did on cyber loafing. After compiling the pros and cons of the workplace cafй's, Team A was able to get an average of hours spent cyber loafing, averages on non-work hours spent in the cyber cafй and so on. The companies that did not allow any internet access stated that their employees would benefit from having a cafй that had internet access. Overall, the managers and the company that they worked for supported the idea of the cyber cafй within their workplace. Clearly, cyber loafing is a critical problem among businesses today and ways to control it is to put restrictions for accessing other sites or offer an internet cafй to employees before or after work.

Secondary research is obtained from using or relating to existing research that could either have been primary or secondary research respectively. Secondary research methods include statistical analysis or information research: books, articles, or internet. As a secondary research source Team 'A' chose the article The Privacy Lawyer: Cyberloafing's Drain of Productivity by Parry Aftab from Information Week Magazine and Internet Risk Management: Building a Framework for Research, a paper by Dr. Carl J. Case and Dr. Kimberly S. Young, Associate Professors of Management Sciences, St. Bonaventure University.

The Privacy Lawyer: Cyberloafing's Drain of Productivity

The focus of this article is to inform on the losses a company is enduring by allowing cyberloafing by employees. Employers are mistaking their employee's enthusiasm as work related rather than cyber fun related. People live busy lives and can't fight the urge to tend to personal business during working hours. Studies show that employers are losing at least $50 billion annually due to lost productivity. According to Parry Aftab, management experts agree that only 67% of full work day is dedicated to productive work activities. The primary reasons employees choose to cyberloaf at work are faster servers, fewer interruptions, and large storage capacity. The author stresses that in order to fix the problem of cyberloafing,