Browsing by Author "Stander, Xander"
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- ItemWorkplace internet leisure browsing, recovery experiences and occupational well-being(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2021-03) Stander, Xander; Boonzaier, Michele; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Dept. of Industrial Psychology.ENGLISH SUMMARY : Historically, major breakthroughs in technology have led to significant improvements in the productivity of organisations. These technological breakthroughs have also completely changed the way that organisations, as well as the people in them, function. The latest improvements in communication technologies, like the internet, are continuing with this trend. With an estimated 5 billion internet users globally on December 31, 2020, it would be difficult to overestimate the effect that the internet has had on both organisations and their employees (Internetworldstats, 2021). As with many things however, the improvements in internet access have brought about several benefits, but also many challenges. One of the most prevalent challenges that organisations are facing as a result of the internet, is the ease with which employees can now surf the internet for personal reasons during working hours. This is often referred to as workplace internet leisure browsing (WILB). It is estimated that employees on average spend between 9.4% and 13.3% of their worktime on WILB (Jandaghi et al., 2015; Lim & Chen, 2012). Traditionally WILB research, as well as the managerial practices that stemmed from it, was underpinned by the belief that any worktime spent on non-work activities will automatically lead to a loss of productivity. More recently however, research on the impact of WILB, as well as the effects and effectiveness of WILB countermeasures, has suggested that the way that we think about WILB might need to be reconsidered (Coker, 2013; Janicke et al., 2017; Sheikh et al., 2015). The disparities in the literature led to the genesis of the present study, which aims to gain a better understanding of the impact that WILB has on employees. The present study is centred around the following research initiating question: “Why is there variance in the occupational well-being amongst South African office workers?”. It attempts to answer this question by analysing the relationship between WILB, recovery experiences and occupational well-being. An ex post facto correlational design with a convenience sample of 101 office workers was utilised. The results revealed that two of the eight hypothesised paths in the structural model were statistically significant. These findings indicated that WILB has a substantial influence on the two recovery experiences variables that were employed in the study. The results of this research calls for further empirical studies on the included variables, especially under circumstances where the country isn’t in a state of a national lockdown.