Is cyberloafing a new way to harm client satisfaction?: a case of students' satisfaction with teaching service

Abstract

Cyberloafing describes voluntary acts of employees using their companies' Internet access for non-work related purposes during working hours. Those cyber activities are generally conceptualized as a form of workplace production deviance and prior studies consistently suggested that cyberloafing is prevalent and is a perennial cause of concern for many companies. However, the results supporting the negative impact of cyberloafing on organizational effectiveness are hardly conclusive. This gap seems even more apparent in the particular case of client satisfaction with services. Accordingly, this paper extends previous cyberloafing literature by using SEM to examine the relationship between cyberloafing and client satisfaction operationalized as student satisfaction with teaching service. Data were collected from 270 teachers and 15, 367 students at a Spanish university. Results support that cyberloafing influence technical (unlike functional) student satisfaction with teaching service. Findings call attention to the role that cyberloafing may play in harming effectiveness in service organizations.