The article conveys the idea that the employee’s time spent on the Internet should be appropriately controlled for the company’s informational security (IS). Personal Internet use takes up 60-80 % of the time staff spends on websites not related to work. Time waste on personal activities is qualified as a deviant behavior in the article and is studied from the criminalistic point of view, among others. The study aims to define the role of the company’s organization justice and personal characteristics of an employee, mainly their self-control, as factors that determine the workplace Internet-abuse. These aspects, according to the authors, remain unexplored concerning the Internet Use Policy (IUP).
The given research is based on Rational Choice Theory (RCT). According to that theory, attention is paid to the fact that employees are more likely to break corporate rules if the benefits of such violations are more significant than the risks of sanctions. However, that is the case only with workers with weak self-control. With RCT’s help, it is stated that the lower self-control is, the more the employee is prone to Internet abuse. Such aspects of self-control as impulsivity and risk-seeking are included in the research process.
What is innovative for the research is that, first of all, the software for modeling SmartPLS was used to conduct research and test it in an online survey. Secondly, Rational Choice Theory was applied to the Internet Use Policy. It is the first study that considers the workers’ personal traits and the organization’s role in investigating IUP. Finally, the article comes up with a set of recommendations for organizations to improve their informational security.
Security procedures should include both deterrence mechanisms and procedural justice that should let employees make decisions on the amount of permitted non-work-related Internet surfing, the ways of monitoring time spent online, and punishing the Internet abuse.
Additionally, employers are recommended to motivate workers so that they do not feel bored and seek entertainment on the World Wide Web. Therefore, the researchers admit that the adherence to the technical measure of providing Internet security is not enough nowadays.