







































Humanitas: Indonesian Psychological Journal  

Vol. 22 (1), February 2025, 57-73 

ISSN:  2598-6368(online); 1693-7236(print)                                                                 

       humanitas@psy.uad.ac.id             http://journal1.uad.ac.id/index.php/Humanitas                              10.26555/humanitas.v22i1.898 

Do role overload and negative emotions lead healthcare workers to 

cyberloafing?  

Aprilia Wulandari, Silvia Kristanti Tri Febriana, Muhammad Abdan Shadiqi 

Psychology Study Program, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Lambung Mangkurat University, 

South Kalimantan, Indonesia 

Corresponding author: s.kristanti@ulm.ac.id 

 

 

This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA license. 

 

Introduction 

Health workers serve as the spearhead of public health (Hukormas, 2018). Their work is very 

tiring and stressful due to high work demands (Ugwu et al., 2017) and high risk and only 

qualified people can be involved therein (Angioha et al., 2020). To cope with stress, 

frustration, and anxiety associated with their demanding jobs, health workers may turn to 

personal internet use as a form of distraction or emotional relief (Krishna & Agrawal, 2023). 

Most health workers use gadgets, not only for tasks like opening emails, but also for other 

things like posting photos, sending messages, watching videos on YouTube, and various other 

activities that are not related to work during working hours (Ross, 2018).   

 The practice of employees utilizing the company's internet network for leisurely activities 

is known as cyberloafing (Lim, 2002; Blanchard & Henle, 2008; Ozler & Polat, 2012). 

Cyberloafing refers to the practice of employees using their work time to engage in non-work-

ARTICLE  INFO 

 

ABSTRACT  

 

Article history 

Received: June 28, 2024 

Revised: November 17, 2024 

Accepted: November 24, 2024 

 Cyberloafing is a serious problem in the workplace, including in 
the health sector. Role overload is a significant stressor that 
contributes to its onset. Referring to the stressor emotion 
counterproductive work behavior model, this study aimed to 
determine the effect of role overload on cyberloafing behavior 
mediated by negative emotions. This research involved 230 health 
workers (doctors, nurses, and midwives) in Indonesia as 
participants. Data was collected using the role overload scale, the 
Job- Related Affective Well-Being Scale, and the cyberloafing 
scale (minor and serious) and was analyzed through IBM SPSS 
Statistics 25 PROCESS Macro Hayes v4.1. The results showed 
that through negative emotions, role overload both directly and 
indirectly predicts serious cyberloafing. On the other hand, the role 
overload did not significantly predict minor cyberloafing; rather, 
it did so indirectly through the mediator's unpleasant emotions. 
This research implies how the government could create policies to 
manage excessive workloads by regulating working hours, 
providing incentives, and ensuring equitable distribution of 
healthcare facilities. Organizations could regularly evaluate 
workloads and offer stress management programs. Healthcare 
workers could adopt effective stress management techniques and 
seek professional support when necessary while also 
communicating openly about role overload.     

    

 
Keywords 

Cyberloafing  

Role overload  

Negative Emotions 

Healthcare Workers 

 

 

 

mailto:humanitas@psy.uad.ac.id
http://journal1.uad.ac.id/index.php/Humanitas
https://doi.org/10.26555/humanitas.v22i1.898
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related activities on the internet. This behavior can include browsing social media, checking 

personal emails, online shopping, or engaging in other leisure activities while on the job 

(Dudija & Miranti, 2024). Cyberloafing can be categorized into two types: minor and serious 

cyberloafing. Minor cyberloafing involves non-work-related internet usage that is generally 

considered less harmful. This includes activities such as sending and receiving personal 

emails, browsing general news websites, checking social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter), and 

online shopping for non-work-related items. Meanwhile, serious cyberloafing encompasses 

more risky or potentially illegal internet activities during work hours, which is considered a 

serious problem and detrimental to many parties. This includes playing online games, 

accessing adult content or gambling sites, and engaging in illegal downloading or streaming 

(Fateh Ur Rahman & Shah, 2020).   

 Research indicates that just 30% of 50 millennial employees can finish projects on time, 

with the other 30% experiencing delays due to excessive internet use during working hours 

(Diastama & Fajrianthi, 2018). According to a different survey, between 60 and 80 percent 

of employees cyberloaf at work (Ross, 2018). Cyberloafing behavior can decrease 

productivity and harm companies in terms of costs incurred (Lim, 2002). In terms of health 

workers, it harms patient safety (Ross, 2018).  

We are focusing this research on health workers in Indonesia. Several cases of 

violations committed by unscrupulous health workers had gone viral on the internet such as 

a beautician played online games while working, causing the patient’s face to be injured 

(Harahap, 2021), a nurse was busy playing gadgets and was indifferent to the patient who 

finally died after giving birth (Natalia, 2021), and a midwife played TikTok while holding a 

patient’s baby while pinching the baby’s cheek (Purnamasari, 2018). Ironically, those 

committing the violations were health workers who served as the spearhead of public health 

(Hukormas, 2018) who must have high job demands both physically and emotionally (Ugwu 

et al., 2017). Moreover, the nature of their work is also dangerous and requires qualified 

people only (Angioha et al., 2020). We, therefore, were interested in taking context and 

focusing on health workers in Indonesia.  

Unfortunately, there are still very few studies that fully address the psychological 

factors that lead to cyberloafing among healthcare professionals. Prior research has only 

demonstrated that loneliness and stress are the main causes of cyberloafing among healthcare 

professionals (Pangani & Munyenyembe, 2024). According to the stressor-emotion 

paradigm, unpleasant emotions do contribute to the initiation of unproductive job practices. 

In terms of psychology, people who consider different things to be stresses typically see 

them as demands that elicit unpleasant feelings. Uncontrollable negative emotions cause 

people to act in a variety of unproductive ways at work (Spector & Fox, 2005). We used 

three variables, namely role overload as the predictor, negative emotions as the mediator, 

and cyberloafing as the outcome. Given that cyberloafing consists of two dimensions, minor 

and serious, in this study, we built two separate mediation models to explain the dynamics 

of role overload and negative emotions in the two types of cyberloafing.  

  Cyberloafing may come from perceptions and attitudes, personality traits, habits, addiction 

to the internet, demographic factors, willingness to get involved, and personal code of ethics 

(Ozler and Polat, 2012).  It may also emerge due to organizational sanctions and work 

stressors such as role conflict, role ambiguity, and role overload (Henle and Blanchard, 2008),  

Referring to the counterproductive work behavior’stressor-emotional model, 

counterproductive work behavior (CWB) is caused by an individual’s inability to manage 

negative emotions when faced with work pressure. Work duties and responsibilities that are 

perceived as pressure tend to trigger negative emotions such as feelings of anger, annoyance, 

anxiety, sadness, etc. Individuals who are unable to control negative emotions tend to release 



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        Aprilia Wulandari et.al (Do role overload and negative emotions lead healthcare workers to…)  

them by acting counterproductive to work (Spector & Fox, 2005). In this regard, Bauer and 

Spector (2015) suggested that employees who have negative emotions can commit production 

deviations (Spector et al., 2006). In this study, we relate it to cyberloafing as a variable that 

is allied with CWB (Lim, 2002).  

 Based on the stressor-emotion model (Spector & Fox ,2005), cyberloafing may occur 

due to job stressors. An important job stressor is role overload, which is defined as a 

condition in which an individual lacks the resources to fulfil his/her work commitments, 

obligations, and requirements (Peterson et al., 1995).  Role overload is considered as 

exhausting as it is perceived as situational demands that exceed one's personal capabilities. 

Role overload can therefore result in a range of stress responses, from minor psychological 

distress like anxiety to more severe ones like depression (Tang & Vandenberghe, 2021). 

Previous research found that role overload was associated with reduced work performance, 

physical and psychological health and burnout  (Huang et al., 2022; Tang & Vandenberghe, 

2021).  

Employees who experience role overloads are likely to commit to cyberloafing. 

However, research on how role overload affects cyberloafing revealed different results. 

Previous research found that employees are more likely to engage in cyberloafing as a coping 

mechanism for reducing work-related stress when they encounter a higher level of role 

overload (Rosalinda et.al., 2023). This implies that employees may utilize their personal 

internet as a way to decompress from their job demands. In contrast, other found that role 

overload has no discernible effect on cyberloafing (Hardiani, et al., 2018). This research aims 

to address the gaps and contribute to extending the existing knowledge on cyberloafing 

among employees by investigating the relationship between role overload and cyberloafing 

and the underlying mechanisms explaining this relationship 

According to the stressor-emotion model (Spector & Fox ,2005), individuals monitor 

and evaluate environmental events, and note that some situations are viewed as job-related 

stressors that endanger their well-being. This results in unpleasant emotional reactions such 

as anger or anxiety, which in turn lead to strain that manifests behaviourally (such as smoking 

or CWB), physically (such as headaches, increased blood pressure), or psychologically (such 

as job dissatisfaction or intention to leave). Role overload occurs when employees have too 

much work to do on a tight schedule that does not match their abilities. This situation is then 

perceived as a stressor that might lead to CWB, including cyberloafing as it is viewed as a 

threat. Previous research found that employees are more likely to engage in cyberloafing as 

a coping mechanism for reducing work-related stress when they encounter a higher level of 

role overload. They may utilize their internet as a way to decompress from their job demands 

(Rosalinda et.al., 2023). Thus, the hypotheses built from this explanation are: (H1) role 

overload predicts minor cyberloafing among health workers and (H2) role overload predicts 

serious cyberloafing among health workers.  

 Negative emotions frequently occur in reaction to pressures at work, which has a 

detrimental impact on productivity. Stressors can cause negative emotional reactions, which 

can then affect an employee's conduct and attitudes toward their work (Jasiński & Derbis, 

2022). Employees may feel overburdened if they are assigned more work than they can 

complete in the allotted working hours. Feelings of overwhelm can be made worse by the 

pressure to achieve deadlines without sufficient resources (Hardiani et al, 2018). This 

disparity has a detrimental effect on work performance and causes a great deal of 

psychological strain (Tang & Vandenberghe, 2021). Bauer & Spector (2015) state that 

employees who experience negative emotions can commit production deviations. Thus, 

hypotheses built from this assumption were: (H3) negative emotions predict minor 



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cyberloafing among health workers and (H4) negative emotions predict serious cyberloafing 

among health workers. 

When employees feel they have been required to do more than they can properly 

handle, they are perceived to be experiencing role overload, which may lead to CWB.  This 

association is mediated by negative affect (Spector & Fox, 2005). According to Tariq et al. 

(2024), role overload is commonly perceived as a stressor that results in retreat tendencies.   

Previous research found that job stressors trigger negative emotions which in turn affect 

CWB (Zhang et al, 2019). Furthermore, research indicates that job uncertainty, a particular 

kind of role stressor, causes negative feelings that further reduce workers' motivation to take 

part in constructive activities outside of their primary duties, hence raising CWB (Nugraheni 

& Wahyuni, 2016). Conversely, workers who experience high levels of role stress may act 

out by withdrawing from work-related activities or acting aggressively toward coworkers as 

a way to vent their negative feelings (Yu et al., 2021). Based on the stressor-emotion model, 

we used negative emotions as a mediating variable between role overload and cyberloafing 

Thus, we expected that: (H5) negative emotions mediate the relationship between role 

overload and minor cyberloafing among health workers (H6) negative emotions mediate the 

relationship between role overload and serious cyberloafing among health workers.  

 

Method 

This study used a quantitative research method with a cross-sectional approach and using 

scales to collect the data.  

 

Participants 

Using a purposive sampling technique, we involved 273 participants. Of them, 43 were 

indicated as outliers, thus having to be eliminated. The final number of participants 

analyzed, therefore, was 230. The subjects in this study should meet the preset criteria: (1) 

currently being a doctor/nurse/midwife providing health services directly to patients, not 

administrative or teaching staff, and (2) working at hospitals, health centers, clinics, or 

independent practice. Based on the data, 187 (68.50%) were women, 112 (44.69%) were 

nurses, 96 (35.16%) were doctors (general practitioners, dentists, specialists, etc.), and 55 

(20.15%) were midwives. As many as 115 participants (42.12%) were aged between 26-30 

years. The data came from 19 of 33 provinces in Indonesia. The respondents’ profiles in 

this study, including gender, age, occupation, workplace institution, and tenure, can be seen 

in Table 1.  

 

Table 1  

Detailed Description of Research Subjects 

Research participants Frequency  Percentage (%) 

Gender 

Male 

Female 

 

86 

187 

 

31.50% 

68.50% 

Age 

20-25 years 

26-30 years 

31-35 years 

>35 years 

 

44 

115 

76 

38 

 

16.12% 

42.12% 

27.84% 

13.92% 



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Table 1  

(Continued) 

 

Job  

Midwifery Staff (Midwives) 

Nursing Staff (Nurses) 

Medical Staff (General practitioners, dentists, specialist 

dentists, etc). 

 

55 

122 

96 

 

 

20.15% 

44.69% 

35.16% 

Job Institution 

Clinic 

Private Practice 

Community Health Center 

Hospital 

 

70 

30 

89 

84 

 

25.64% 

10.99% 

32.60% 

30.77% 

Work period 

over 6 months 

between 1 and 2 years 

between 3 and 4 years 

more than 5 years 

more than 12 years 

more than 16 years 

 

31 

88 

122 

30 

1 

1 

 

11.36% 

32.23% 

44.69% 

10.99% 

  0.37% 

  0.37% 

Province 

West Java 

East Java 

Central Java 

South Kalimantan 

Central Kalimantan 

West Kalimantan 

East Kalimantan 

North Sumatra 

South Sumatra 

West Sumatra 

South Jakarta 

East Jakarta 

West Jakarta 

South Sulawesi 

Riau 

Banten 

Lampung 

East Nusa Tenggara 

Aceh 

 

79 

19 

12 

71 

2 

19 

3 

5 

7 

3 

14 

2 

9 

2 

2 

17 

5 

1 

1 

 

28.90% 

7.00% 

4.40% 

26.00% 

0.70% 

7.00% 

1.10% 

1.80% 

2.60% 

1.10% 

5.10% 

0.70% 

3.30% 

0.70% 

0.70% 

6.20% 

1.80% 

0.40% 

0.40% 

 

 

Instruments  

We tested the instruments on 100 health workers before distributing it to research 

participants. The trial was carried out on 3 groups of health workers according to the criteria 



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previously mentioned. The distribution of the questionnaires was carried out online using 

the Google form. 

Role overload was assessed using a subscale the role stressor scale that specifically 

measure role overload developed by Peterson et al. (1995) and had been adapted into 

Indonesian by Febriana (2020). The number of role overload items was 5, all of which were 

favorable, with a Likert scale type with 5 answer choices: 1) Strongly Disagree, 2) Disagree, 

3) Disagree, 4) Agree, and 5) Strongly Agree. The reliability value of this measuring 

instrument was 0.84. All items exceed the threshold value of the item-total correlation 

coefficient, which is 0.57 to 0.73. The statement items on this scale are “I feel overwhelmed 

by my roles”, “I have been given too much responsibility", “my workload is too heavy.” 

Cyberloafing was assessed using the Cyberloafing scale developed by Blanchard and 

Henle (2008) to measure minor and serious cyberloafing. The instrument was first adapted 

into Bahasa Indonesia based on the guidelines for adapting measuring instruments from the 

International Test Commission (ITC). This instrument was a Likert scale type consisting of 

22 items, one of which failed at the trial stage, leaving 21 favourable items. Participants may 

respond to one of 5 answer choices ranging from 1) Never, 2) Rarely, 3) Sometimes, 4) Quite 

often, and 5) Very often. The reliability of the scale was 0.95.  All items exceed the threshold 

value of the item-total correlation coefficient, which is 0.39 to 0.81. Based on the article by 

Blanchard and Henle (2008), the reliability value for minor cyberloafing is 0.86 and for 

serious cyberloafing is 0.80. Examples of minor cyberloafing items include “checking non-

work-related e-mail”, “checking online personals”, “shopped online personal goods”. 

Examples of serious cyberloafing items include “participated in chat rooms”, “downloaded 

music”, “read blogs.” 

We used the Job-Related Affective Well-Being Scale (JAWS) specific for the 

dimension of negative emotions to measure negative emotions. The scale had been adapted 

into Bahasa Indonesia by Febriana (2020). Despite the two subscales, the calculation was 

still made into one score. This instrument was a type of Likert scale consisting of ten 

favourable items with 5 answer choices: 1) Never, 2) Rarely, 3) Sometimes, 4) Quite often, 

and 5) Very often. The reliability value of this measuring instrument was 0.93. All items 

exceed the threshold value of the item-total correlation coefficient, which is 0.63 to 0.83. 

One of the items in this negative emotion scale was “my job makes me feel angry”, ”my job 

makes me feel anxious”, “my job makes me feel bored.” 

 

Procedure 

We received ethical approval from the Faculty of Medicine of Universitas Lambung 

Mangkurat No. 75/KEPK-FK ULM/EC/III/2022).  We used Google Forms to distribute the 

questionnaires. Participants were recruited via online and completed the anonymous 

questionnaires voluntarily  

 

 Data Analysis  

Data analysis was performed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 25 application. The stages for 

conducting data analysis were divided into the assumption test and the hypothesis test using 

the mediation model regression analysis process proposed by Hayes. We tested the Hayes 

mediation regression model twice on two models based on the type of cyberloafing.  In 

testing the hypotheses, we used data whose outliers had been removed with a multivariate 

outliers detection technique, namely the Mahalanobis distances, cook’s distances, and 

leverage distances. As a result, 43 people were deleted, leaving 230 people.  



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        Aprilia Wulandari et.al (Do role overload and negative emotions lead healthcare workers to…)  

Results 

In the assumption analysis stage, we conducted a residual normality test and found a normal 

distribution (normal probability plot; the dots spread out and coincided around the diagonal). 

We also carried out a linearity test and found that it was linear (Sig. <0.05). No 

multicollinearity was found for all the predicting variables (VIF < 10); heteroscedasticity 

was also not found. In the next analysis stage, we performed Pearson's bivariate correlation 

analysis (see Table 2). Overall, there were significant positive relationships between the 

variables. 

 

Table 2.  

Correlation and Descriptive Statistics 

  α Scale Mean SD 1 2 3 4 

1 

2 

3 

4 

Role Overload 

Minor Cyberloafing  

Serious Cyberloafing  

Negative Emotions 

0.78 

0.92 

0.77 

0.79 

1-5 

1-5 

1-5 

1-5 

  9.54 

 24.00 

 16.70 

21.19 

2.97 

7.38 

4.23 

7.22 

- 0.66** 

- 

0.64** 

0.59** 

- 

0.73** 

0.85** 

0.67** 

- 

Note: **p<0.01. 

Hypothesis Testing 

We used PROCESS v4.1 by Andrew F. Hayes using Model 4; 5000 bootstraps. We 

tested Model 4 twice based on the type of cyberloafing (minor vs serious). Figure 1 shows 

that role overload not significantly predict minor cyberloafing (direct effect) with β =0.09; 

t(228) = 1.73; p = 0.09, and 95% CI [-0.03; 0.47] (H1 was not accepted). The analysis results 

proved a significant effect of negative emotions on minor cyberloafing with β = 0.78; t(228) 

= 15.27; p<.001, and 95% CI [0.70; 0.90] (H3 was accepted). The analysis results also 

showed that role overload significantly predicted minor cyberloafing under the mediation of 

negative emotions with β = 0.58; BootSE = 0.06, and BootCI 95% [0.47; 0.69] (H5 was 

accepted). In Figures 1 and 2, we find that significant negative emotions were predicted by 

role overload with β = 0.73; t(228) = 16.31; p<0.001, and 95% CI [1.57; 1.99]. Both role 

overload and negative emotions significantly predicted minor cyberloafing R2 = 0.72; F(1. 

23) = 297.95; p<.001. So, as much as 72.4% of the variance of the two very significant 

predictors explained minor cyberloafing. 

 

Figure 1.  

Schematic of Hypothesis Test Results between Role Overload (X), Minor Cyberloafing (Y1), 

and Negative Emotions (M) 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Role Overload 

(X) 

Minor Cyberloafing 

(Y1) 

Negative Emotions 

(M)  β = 0.78 

p< 0.001 

 

 β = 0.73 

p< 0.001 

 

 β = 0.09 

p< 0.001 

 



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Figure 2 shows that role overload significantly predicted serious cyberloafing with β 

= 0.33; t(228) = 4.71; 95% CI [0.27; 0.66] (H2 was accepted). The analysis results showed 

a significant effect of negative emotions on serious cyberloafing with β = 0.43; t(228) = 6.16; 

p <0.001; 95% CI [0.17; 0.35] (H4 was accepted). The results of another hypothesis test 

found that role overload very significantly predicted serious cyberloafing under the 

mediation of negative emotions with β = 0.32; BootSE = 0.06; CI 95% [0.21; 0.44] (H6 was 

accepted). Both role overload and negative emotions very significantly predicted serious 

cyberloafing R2 =0.49; F(1.228)= 111.12; p <.001. So, 49.5% of the variance of the two very 

significant predictors explained serious cyberloafing. 

Figure 2.  

Schematic of Hypothesis Test Results between Role Overload (X), Serious Cyberloafing (Y2), 

and Negative Emotions (M) 

 

 

 

 

 

Discussion 

This study aimed to determine the effect of role overload on cyberloafing among health 

workers in Indonesia under the mediation of negative emotions. Health workers who 

experience role overload may experience negative emotions such as anger, boredom, and 

anxiety, which can trigger them to engage in cyberloafing such as visiting sports websites, 

responding to personal chats, shopping online, playing online games, and various other 

behaviors that are not related to their work. according to stressor-emotion model proposed by 

Spector and Fox (2005), when a person encounters a situation that is considered unfair, he/she 

will have negative emotions, which, if not handled properly, can trigger CWB. However, on 

the other side, according to Vitak et al. (2011), cyberloafing can serve as a reliever of 

boredom, fatigue, or stress, increases job satisfaction, recovery, and recreation, and makes 

employees happy; It can be said that cyberloafing is a kind of stress coping to deal with work 

stressors, including role overload  (Henle & Blanchard, 2008).   

 Based on the analysis, we found that role overload predicted serious cyberloafing 

both directly and indirectly through the mediation of negative emotions. Conversely, we 

revealed that role overload only predicts minor cyberloafing through the indirect effect of 

the mediator of negative emotions. These findings indicated that in the context of healthcare 

workers in Indonesia, they tend to engage in minor cyberloafing as a form of emotional 

release when facing stress due to role overload. Minor cyberloafing, such as sending and 

receiving personal emails, browsing general news websites, and checking social media, can 

function as a temporary escape or coping mechanism to reduce negative feelings that allow 

individuals to manage their emotional state during periods of stress.  

Role Overload 

(X) 

Serious Cyberloafing 

(Y2) 

Negative Emotions 

(M) 

 β = 0.43 

p< 0.001 

 

 β = 0.73 

p< 0.001 

 

 β = 0.33 

p< 0.001 

 



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This study highlights that while role stress can lead to emotional exhaustion, which 

in turn encourages cyberloafing, the direct effects of role stress on cyberloafing are less 

significant. This aligns with the idea that negative emotions mediate the relationship between 

role overload and cyberloafing behaviors (Lu et al., 2024). In addition, Jamaluddin's study 

(2023) found a tendency to release instant gratification or diversion from piling tasks, further 

strengthening the cycle of using cyberloafing as a strategy to overcome work stress. This 

research proposes that cyberloafing can serve as a coping strategy for employees facing work 

stressors such as role ambiguity, conflict, and overload. It was found that emotional 

exhaustion mediates the relationship between these stressors and job-related strain. The 

study emphasizes that while role overload can lead to increased cyberloafing, it does so 

indirectly through emotional responses rather than a direct effect. Similarly, Zhang et al. 

(2024) study explains that observing colleagues engaging in cyberloafing can normalize this 

behavior within a team, leading to collective engagement in the activity as a response to role 

stressors. This social reinforcement can strengthen the indirect effect of negative emotions 

on minor cyberloafing behavior. 

Serious cyberloafing occurs more frequently among healthcare workers than minor 

cyberloafing due to several interconnected factors, including a study by Alqahtani et al. 

(2022) showing that stress due to significant work pressure, such as high patient load and 

emotional demands, causes healthcare workers to engage in serious cyberloafing as a coping 

mechanism, allowing workers to escape their stressful environment for a while. This study 

confirms that healthcare workers may engage in more serious forms of cyberloafing when 

their obligations are too heavy. On the other hand, a study by Aciksoz et al. (2024) suggests 

that the culture in healthcare environments may inadvertently encourage serious 

cyberloafing. In environments where employees feel underappreciated or overworked, they 

may turn to more substantial online distractions, such as engaging in social media or 

watching videos, rather than simply engaging in minor activities such as checking email or 

browsing the news. This behavior may be exacerbated by the lack of strict policies regarding 

internet use during work hours. In addition, the ease of access to technology can lead to 

deeper distractions that draw employees' attention away from their tasks for longer periods 

of time. Serious cyberloafing often involves engaging with content that requires more time 

and focus, such as streaming services or extensive social media interactions (Sarıoğlu & 

Dedeşin, 2021). Another reason why serious cyberloafing is more common is that healthcare 

workers may perceive that there are fewer sanctions or negative consequences for serious 

cyberloafing compared to mild cyberloafing. If employees believe that they can engage in 

serious online activities without immediate consequences, they may be more likely to engage 

in these behaviors during work hours. This perception may lead to a culture where serious 

cyberloafing becomes commonplace (Sarıoğlu & Dedeşin, 2021). 

Furthermore, role overload significantly predicts serious cyberloafing both directly 

and indirectly through the mediation of negative emotions. This is in line with several 

studies, including Alqahtani et al. (2022), which examine how stressors specific to nursing, 

such as high workloads and emotional demands, contribute to cyberloafing behaviors. It 

highlights that nurses often resort to cyberloafing as a coping mechanism for workplace 

stress, which aligns with the idea that role overload can lead to increased cyberloafing 

through negative emotions. Likewise, the study of Pangani and Munyenyembe (2024) found 

that increased stress levels were significantly correlated with increased cyberloafing 

behavior, indicating that negative emotional states can drive healthcare workers to engage 



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in non-work-related online activities during work hours. On the other hand, the study of Zein 

El Din and Baddar (2019) shows how personality traits influence cyberloafing among 

nurses. It indicates that those with higher levels of procrastination are more likely to engage 

in serious cyberloafing, supporting the notion that personal characteristics combined with 

workplace stressors can lead to increased non-productive online behavior. The results of the 

analysis of direct and indirect effects in this study were in accordance with Zhang et al.’s 

(2019) finding that role overload has an indirect effect on CWB through negative emotions 

as the mediating variable. Similarly, the study by Ng and Yang (2023) shows that employees 

who perceive themselves as experiencing a career plateau at a stagnant point are likely to 

engage in CWB when they experience negative emotions. Likewise, the study by Yu et al. 

(2021) proves that workers who experience job insecurity as a stressor can trigger negative 

emotions that lead to reluctance to perform extra-role work behavior. So, it can be concluded 

that role overload can affect cyberloafing behavior (both minor and serious) through 

negative emotions.  

  Health workers tend to carry out cyberloafing behavior when they get role overload. 

According to Moffan et al. (2020), the higher the work stress experienced by a person, the 

higher his/her possibility of engaging in cyberloafing behavior. This is not in line with the 

research by Henle and Blanchard (2008) and Hardiani et al. (2018) who found that when 

experiencing role oveload, a person tends not to perform behavior that is not related to work; 

role overload, therefore, do not affect cyberloafing behavior. Based on the analysis of the 

direct effect, role overload has a very significant effect on cyberloafing (both minor and 

serious) without using negative emotions as a mediator. This is inversely proportional to the 

research of Zhang et al. (2019) that stated that role overload does not have a significant effect 

on CWB without the presence of a mediating variable.The discrepancy between the results 

of this study and those of previous studies in the analysis of the effect of role overload and 

cyberloafing was because of the difference of the subjects observed. Henle and Blanchard 

(2008) studied MBA students at Southeastern University; Hardiani et al. (2018) studied 

employees of PT PLN (Persero) Construction Management Center in Semarang; Zhang et al. 

(2019) studied employees in general in China. Meanwhile, we studied 

doctors/nurses/midwives in Indonesia who provide health services directly to patients which 

make them have more roles, workloads, responsibilities, and busier activities than those in 

other fields. Besides, their works are dangerous and require qualified workers only (Angioha 

et al., 2020). This is supported by the statement of Ugwu et al. (2017) that health workers are 

one of the six most tiring and stressful jobs. In addition, the research location and the criteria 

for this study were different from those of previous studies. This research covered 19 

provinces in Indonesia and focused on cyberloafing (both minor and serious), which had been 

defined as internet-based violations, not on more general variables like CWB. Another 

difference was in the analytical method used, where previous research used SEM for factor 

analysis, while this research used Hayes' mediation model regression analysis. Therefore, the 

results of this study were naturally irrelevant to previous theories and provided a new 

contribution to the theory of the effect of role overload on cyberloafing. 

  The results showed that health workers who get role overload tend to have negative 

emotions such as anger, frustration, and various other negative feelings. These results were 

in line with research conducted by Eissa and Lester (2017) that said that role overload can 

increase frustration, which is of negative emotions. According to research, employees who 

experience job overload are more likely to experience anxiety and sadness. For example, role 

overload was associated with worse psychological health outcomes for low-ranking 

government employees, according to a study (Huang et al., 2022). Additionally, role overload 



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        Aprilia Wulandari et.al (Do role overload and negative emotions lead healthcare workers to…)  

increases psychological strain through a number of processes. For instance, feelings of 

frustration and inadequacy might result from an imbalance between demands and resources, 

and these emotions are important precursors to negative emotions like sadness (Tang & 

Vanderberghe, 2021). frequently researched in conjunction with other job stressors like role 

conflict and role ambiguity. Together, these stresses lead to emotions of stress and discontent 

at work (Hardiani et al., 2018). Such a situation can happen because the high demands of 

their work both physically and emotionally (Ugwu et al., 2017). Moreover, their works are 

dangerous and require qualified people only (Angioha et al., 2020). Because of that pressure, 

they tend to feel negative emotions which, if not handled properly, can lead them to further 

behavior, such as deviance at work.  

             Other studies showed that when having negative emotions, such as feeling anxious 

and depressed, health workers may tend to carry out cyberloafing behavior, such as 

participating in chat rooms and playing online games. This is in line with several studies on 

counterproductive work behavior, including Adelia et al., (2024) that higher levels of 

negative affectivity have been found to be directly associated with employees' intentions to 

leave their jobs. For example, it has been demonstrated that emotional tiredness, a factor 

frequently linked to negative affectivity, considerably reduces job satisfaction and raises the 

possibility that workers would think about quitting their positions. Another study discovered 

that those who have high levels of negative affectivity frequently perform worse, especially 

under pressure. What is known as "passive performance"—characterised by disengagement 

or a lack of initiative—can result from this loss in effort and involvement with tasks (Shaya 

et al., 2024). Furthermore, a study examining coworker incivility found that such negative 

interactions can lead to feelings of workplace loneliness, which in turn fosters withdrawal 

behavior. The findings suggest that employees who experience incivility are likely to 

withdrawl not only due to the immediate emotional impact but also because of the resulting 

loneliness and disconnection from their work environment (Zhu, et al., 2024). On the other 

side, Henle & Blanchard (2008) stated that cyberloafing is a way to cope with stress when 

dealing with job stressors, while Moffan et al. (2020) said that cyberloafing is a way for 

employees to escape or reduce the negative emotions they have at work.  

               The results of this study certainly enriched the literature on the influence of these 

three variables, especially cyberloafing which is still rarely researched and, most importantly, 

enriched the recent literature on the stressor-emotion model of Spector and Fox (2005) that 

says that a person, when experiencing pressure at work, tends to have negative emotions, 

which, if not handled properly, can lead to further behavior in the form of deviation at work. 

Likewise, in this study, when experiencing role overload, health workers tend to have 

negative emotions such as anger, depression, and various other negative feelings. When these 

emotions are not handled properly, they tend to carry out cyberloafing behaviors, such as 

reading websites, playing online games, and various other behaviors, such as surfing the 

internet, which are certainly not for work purposes. Therefore, the government needs to 

design policies related to regulating healthcare workers' workloads and developing their 

capacity. Similarly, organizations need to make practical efforts such as conducting regular 

workload evaluations and creating a positive and supportive work culture where healthcare 

workers feel valued and supported. In addition, organizations also need to pay attention to the 

mental health issues of healthcare workers, such as providing an Employee Assistance 

Program to offer psychological support to each worker. 

              The practical implications of this research are that the government is expected to 

create better policies for handling excessive workloads, such as regulating shift working hours 

and providing additional incentives for healthcare workers that exceed regular working hours. 

Furthermore, the government must establish sufficient healthcare facilities across all regions 



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Aprilia Wulandari et.al (Do role overload and negative emotions lead healthcare workers to…) 

to ensure an equitable distribution of healthcare workers' workloads, rather than concentrating 

them in a single facility. The government is also expected to pay more attention to 

psychological support for healthcare workers. Nevertheless, organizations are expected to 

conduct regular evaluations of healthcare workers' workloads. If the workload is found to be 

excessive, they will likely hire additional staff. Additionally, in terms of managing employee 

stress, they are expected to provide programs such as counseling and relaxation therapy 

training that can independently help healthcare workers when facing stress. For healthcare 

workers, they need to learn more effective methods of stress management, like independent 

relaxation techniques. If self-management proves insufficient, they should seek support from 

professionals such as psychologists or psychiatrists. Additionally, when experiencing role 

overload, they should learn to be open with supervisors or colleagues to ask for help. 

               This study used the correlational method only, thus requiring more in-depth research 

using experimental and longitudinal methods. Another limitation was that the research sample 

did not fully represent national data because it only came from 19 out of 33 provinces 

throughout Indonesia. We also recommended that future research broaden the criteria of the 

research subjects to be more general than health workers, such as the general public. 

Conclusion 

This study found that role overload has an influence on the cyberloafing behavior (both 

minor and serious) of health workers in Indonesia under the mediation of negative emotions. 

We found that role overload can only predict minor cyberloafing through the mediating 

effect of negative emotions, demonstrating the presence of full mediation. Compared to the 

indirect effect through negative emotions, the direct effect of role overload on serious 

cyberloafing seems to be stronger. The fact that the difference is so slight, however, indicates 

that both the direct and mediated routes play a significant role in the explanation of severe 

cyberloafing. On the other hand, role overload has a stronger predictive indirect impact on 

minor cyberloafing through bad emotions; the direct effect is not significant. Consequently, 

the indirect pathway is a more important predictor of minor cyberloafing as unpleasant 

emotions explain the role-overload and cyberloafing relationships. 

  

Acknowledgement 

We sincerely thank all respondents for their participation in this study. Our gratitude also 

goes to colleagues for their valuable insights and support. 

 

Declarations  

Author contribution. The first author contributed to conceiving and designing the study, 

collecting data, analyzing data, writing the draft of the manuscript and finalizing the 

manuscript. The second author as corresponding author contributes to carrying out 

communication and administrative tasks required for manuscript publication, supervising 

research design, reviewing the manuscript and data analysis, and also writing the draft of the 

manuscript. The third author contributed to data analysis and writing the draft of the 

manuscript.  

Funding statement. The authors did not receive funding for this research. 

Conflict of interest. All authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest 

 

 



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