Does supervisors’ mindfulness keep employees from engaging in cyberloafing out of compassion at work?
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-12-2017-0384 |
| Pages | 670-687 |
| Published date | 08 November 2019 |
| Date | 08 November 2019 |
| Author | Pablo Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara,Mercedes Viera-Armas,Gabriel De Blasio García |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
Does supervisors’mindfulness
keep employees from
engaging in cyberloafing out of
compassion at work?
Pablo Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara
Department of Economics and Management,
Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria –Campus de Tafira,
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
Mercedes Viera-Armas
Morgan Stanley Group Europe, London, UK, and
Gabriel De Blasio García
Department of Computers and Systems,
Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria –Campus de Tafira,
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the appearance of cyberloafing at work, that is,
the use of the company’s internet connection for personal purposes, may be due to a workplace that lacks
mindfulness and compassion. The authors first hypothesize that supervisors’mindfulness is related to the
mindfulness of their direct followers, and that both are related to employees’compassionat work. The authors
also hypothesize that compassion mediates the link between supervisors’and followers’mindfulness and
cyberloafing, and that empathic concern mediates the link from compassion to cyberloafing.
Design/methodology/approach –A questionnaire was distributed to followers working in groups of three
with the same leader in all of the 100 banks in London (UK). Supervisors and their direct reports (n¼100) and
100 triads of followers (n¼300) participated. The authors applied structural equation modeling (SEM)
for analyses.
Findings –Results showed that supervisors’and followers’mindfulness were significantly related to each
other and to compassion at work, but compassion acted as a mediator only in the case of supervisors’
mindfulness. Empathic concern mediated the compassion-cyberloafing link.
Research limitations/implications –The study could suffer from mono-method/source bias and
specificities of banks and their work processes can raise concerns about the generalizability of the results.
Practical implications –Findings suggest that mindfulness training may facilitate compassion at work,
which, in turn, will restrain the occurrence of cyberloafing at work.
Originality/value –This is the first study to analyze how and why employees refrain from harming their
organizations out of compassion.
Keywords Quantitative, Mindfulness, Leaders, Cyberloafing, Compassion at work, Personal internet use
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Dutton et al. (2014) describe compassion (from the Latin, com-: together, and -passio:
to suffer) as “an interpersonal process involving the noticing, feeling, sensemaking, and
acting that alleviates the suffering of another person.”Although prior research suggests
that employees can perceive organizations as vulnerable enough to inspire compassion
(e.g. Hutchins and Wang, 2008; Shapiro et al., 2011), only employees have been studied as
recipients of compassion at work. However, as Lilius et al. (2008) suggest, compassion
experienced at work not only leads employees to reshape their understanding of their
co-workers and themselves, but also of their organization as a whole.
Personnel Review
Vol. 49 No. 2, 2020
pp. 670-687
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-12-2017-0384
Received 12 December 2017
Revised 14 December 2018
26 June 2019
Accepted 4 August 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
670
PR
49,2
This paper explores how and why employees may help their organizations out of
compassion at work. Based on unitarism theory by Alan Fox (1966), which assumes that,
within organizations, employees share similar basic values, interests and a unitary common
goal with peers and supervisors, we postulate that employees help their organizations out of
compassion more easily when their workplace is integrated and harmonious, where
mindfulness can play a central role. Because mindful employees do not avoid, alter, or try to
control work experiences (Hayes et al., 2006), employees who are high in mindfulness might
improve behavioral choices related to awareness of others’needs and vulnerabilities
(Chatzisarantis and Hagger, 2007; Langer and Moldoveanu, 2000), thus facilitating an
integrated and harmonious workplace that leads them to help their organizations out of
compassion. Mindfulness is the opposite of acting automatically at work, that is, as defined
by Kabat-Zinn (2005, p. 4), “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present
moment, and nonjudgmentally”(see also, Reb et al., 2015). In this regard, Good et al. (2016,
p. 114) contend that there is “emerging evidence […] that mindfulness is fundamentally
connected to many aspects of workplace functioning,”but it “has not been systematically
integrated in the workplace to date.”This study accepts this challenge and aims to
empirically examine whether mindfulness could be involved in a work compassion process
directed at the organization.
Although prior research has examined the interpersonal effects of leaders’mindfulness
on followers, such as the increase in ethical decision making (Ruedy and Schweitzer, 2010;
Shapiro et al., 2012) and job and need satisfaction (Reb et al., 2014), the role that leaders’
mindfulness could play in followers’mindfulness and compassionate behavior has received
little systematic attention. Based on unitarism theory (Fox, 1966), we contend that because
leaders’mindfulness may provide an integrated and harmonious workplace that is able to
activate this unitary concern for the organization, it could also facilitate greater openness in
followers to socially learn mindfulness routines (Bandura, 1977). Therefore, this paper also
examines whether followers’mindfulness is enhanced by the mindfulness of their direct
supervisors, and whether they can both ultimately elicit employees’perceptions of
compassion at work and helping behavior toward the organization.
One way employees can show acts of compassion toward their organization is by
refraining from harming the organization (Dalai Lama, 2002). As Whitebrook (2002) noted,
compassion implies a lack of attribution of blame and moving away from revenge toward
care and forgiveness is a firm expression of compassion. In a workplace where compassion
is experienced, therefore, even though staff are ready to participate in some type of action
that would undermine the organization, they may eventually decide not to. Because
employees are experiencing compassion at work, they may be concerned about the
wellbeing of the organization and refrain from giving in to their harmful impulse. Schwartz
(1968) refers to this phenomenon as “awareness of consequences,”that is, becoming aware
of the potential effects of one’s acts on the welfare of others; and Bandura (1999) refers to it
as “moral engagement,”the power to refrain from behaving inhumanely. Considered as
production deviance (Robinson and Bennett, 1995), cyberloafing can be one of these harmful
activities at work that employees can renounce out of compassion. Cyberloafing is defined
as employees’misuse of company-provided internet access for non work-related purposes
during their work day (Lim, 2002; Lim and Teo, 2005). Indeed, there is considerable concern
among managers that cyberloafing leads employees to waste energy and time (Lim and Teo,
2005), impair organizational goals for development, postpone tasks, and expose information
systems to spyware infection (Levoie and Pychyl, 2001).
Research examining the role that mindfulness and compassion can play in the emergence
of cyberloafing in the workplace is nonexistent. This study posits that the mindfulness of
supervisors and/or followers may be able to directly move employees to decide not to
participate in cyberloafing out of compassion. As such, if employees are mindfully engaged,
671
Mindfulness and
cyberloafing out
of compassion
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