Work commitment and employees' misuse of the internet in the workplace

In a knowledge-based society, the Internet becomes a necessity for any organization. Despite its importance in advancing organizational efficiency and effectiveness, organizations encounter the phenomenon of individuals who use organizational facilities, in general, and the Internet at work, in particular, to generate personal benefits. Misuse of the Internet at work is defined as behavior that falls outside both the reference group and the hypernorms' sets of norms. Such misbehavior not only causes serious economic damages but also socially undermines the work environment and the core values and practices on which the organization itself has been built. Organizational responses aimed at coping with such misbehavior have concentrated on disciplinary actions and technical solutions to block employees' access to the Internet and e-mail programs but have enjoyed only limited success. To better cope with such misconduct, an organization must look beyond the current conventional responses to the roots of individual behavior in the workplace. In this chapter, the theory of work commitment is used to explore how distinct forms of work commitment may promote or diminish the likelihood of inappropriate individual use of the Internet in the workplace.