Exploring the Influence of Technology, Lifestyle and Flexible Working Arrangements on Cyber Psychology among Employees at a Malaysian Investment Holding Company
Abstract
This study explores the relationship between cyberpsychology and its influencing factors among employees at an investment holding company (which will be addressed as XYZ Berhad). Understanding the impact of technology, lifestyle, and flexible working arrangements on employees' psychological well-being and behavior is crucial in today's digital workplace. With the prevalence of remote work and flexible arrangements, it becomes essential to examine how these factors influence employees' cyberpsychology experiences. Using a quantitative correlational approach, data was collected from 123 participants out of a total employee population of 174 at XYZ Berhad. The survey utilized Likert scale items to assess respondents' perspectives on technology usage, lifestyle choices, flexible working arrangements, and cyberpsychology. The findings reveal significant relationships between cyberpsychology and the influencing factors. Technology has a strong positive relationship, indicating its substantial impact on employees' psychological well-being and work behaviors. Similarly, lifestyle choices show a moderate positive relationship, highlighting the relevance of personal lifestyle preferences in shaping cyberpsychological experiences. Additionally, flexible working arrangement displays a medium positive relationship, underscoring the importance of work arrangements in influencing employees' psychological responses. The study recommends implementing awareness programs to help employees manage the psychological effects of technology usage and promoting the usage of online communication platforms to foster a positive organizational culture. Guidelines for employees working under flexible arrangements are advised to support their well-being and maintain a healthy work-life balance.
Downloads
References
Ahuja, V. & Alavi, S. (2017). Cyberpsychology and cyber behavior of adolescents-the need of the contemporary era. Procedia Computer Science, 122, 671-676.
Ambikapathy, M., & Ali, A. (2020). Impact and challenges towards employees working from home during COVID-19 (MCO) period. International Journal of Social Science Research, 2(4), 97-107.
Ancis, J. R. (2020). The age of cyberpsychology: An overview.
Arun, N. D. (2020). A study of cyberpsychological behaviors among girls studying in higher educational institutes.
Assim, M. I. S. A., Munusamy, A., Yaccob, Y., Jusoh, N. H. M., & Janis, S. (2021). Factors influencing psychological well-being and gender among private financial sector employees in Malaysia. International Journal of Academic Research in Business & Social Sciences, 10(1), 331-351.
Atkinson, C., & Hall, L. (2011). Flexible working and happiness in the NHS. Employee Relations, 33(2), 88-105.
Biggio, G., & Cortese, C. (2013). Well-being in the workplace through interaction between individual characteristics and organizational context. International Journal of Qualitative Studies on Health and Well-Being, 8(1), 19823.
Malek, M. B. C. (2020). The impact of flexible work arrangements on employee engagement with the mediating role of work-home interaction.
Bloom, N., & Van Reenen, J. (2006). Management practices, work-life balance, and productivity: A review of some recent evidence. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 22(4), 457-482.
Brooks, S., & Longstreet, P. (2015). Social networking’s peril: Cognitive absorption, social networking usage, and depression. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 9(4).
Bryce, J. (2015). Cyberpsychology and human factors. Engineering & Technology Reference.
Calvo, R., D’Mello, S., Gratch, J., Kappas, A., Riva, G., Calvo, R. & Lisetti, C. (2015). Cyberpsychology and affective computing. The Oxford Handbook of Affective Computing.
Caponnetto, P., & Milazzo, M. (2019). Cyber Health Psychology: The use of new technologies at the service of psychological well-being and health empowerment. Health Psychology Research, 7(2).
Cascio, W. F., & Montealegre, R. (2016). How technology is changing work and organizations. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 3, 349-375.
Clark, J. L., Algoe, S. B. & Green, M. C. (2017). Social network sites and well-being: The role of social connection. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 27(1), 32–37.
Coovert, M. D. & Thompson, L. F. (2013). The psychology of workplace technology. In the Psychology of Workplace Technology.
De Menezes, L. M. & Kelliher, C. (2016). Flexible working, individual performance, and employee attitudes: Comparing formal and informal arrangements. Human Resource Management, 56(6), 1051–1070.
De Menezes, L. M., & Kelliher, C. (2017). Flexible working, individual performance, and employee attitudes: Comparing formal and informal arrangements. Human Resource Management, 56(6), 1051-1070.
Dhanalakshmi, A. (2020). Cyberpsychology and its impact on 10th and intermediate students in West Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh. Editorial Board, 9(2), 71.
Draxler, J. (2012). Globalization and social risk management in Europe–a literature review
Dwivedi, Y. K., Ismagilova, E., Hughes, D. L., Carlson, J., Filieri, R., Jacobson, J. & Wang, Y. (2021). Setting the future of digital and social media marketing research: Perspectives and research propositions. International Journal of Information Management, 59, 102168.
Frank, K. E., & Lowe, D. J. (2003). An examination of alternative work arrangements in private accounting practice. Accounting Horizons, 17(2), 139-151.
Greenhaus, J. H., & Beutell, N. J. (1985). Sources of conflict between work and family roles. Academy of Management Review, 10(1), 76-88.
Hawi, N. S., & Samaha, M. (2017). The relations among social media addiction, self-esteem, and life satisfaction in university students. Social Science Computer Review, 35(5), 576-586.
Henle, C. A., & Kedharnath, U. (2012). Cyberloafing in the workplace. In Encyclopedia of Cyber Behavior (pp. 560-573). IGI Global.
Islam, A. (2022). Work-from/at/for-home: COVID-19 and the future of work–A critical review. Geoforum, 128, 33-36.
Kahil, B. (2021). Motivation and privacy role in knowledge sharing during Pandemic 2020: A study of enterprise social system use in Malaysian SMEs. Journal of Digitovation and Information System, 1(1), 28-42.
Kirwan, G. (2010). Cyberpsychology. The Irish Journal of Psychology, 31(1-2), 69–84.
Kotey, B., & Sharma, B. (2016). Predictors of flexible working arrangement provision in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 27(22), 2753-2770.
Lewis, S. (2003). Flexible working arrangements: Implementation, outcomes, and management. International Review of Industrial and Organizational Psychology 2003, 18, 1-28.
Liu, H. L., Lavender-Stott, E. S., Carotta, C. L., & Garcia, A. S. (2022). Leisure experience and participation and its contribution to stress-related growth amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Leisure Studies, 41(1), 70-84.
Marx, C. K., Reimann, M., & Diewald, M. (2021). Do work–life measures really matter? The impact of flexible working hours and home-based teleworking in preventing voluntary employee exits. Social Sciences, 10(1), 9.
Masuda, A., Boone, M. S., & Timko, C. A. (2011). The role of psychological flexibility in the relationship between self-concealment and disordered eating symptoms. Eating Behaviors, 12(2), 131-135.
McNicol, M. L., & Thorsteinsson, E. B. (2017). Internet addiction, psychological distress, and coping responses among adolescents and adults. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 20(5), 296-304.
Meier, A., & Johnson, B. K. (2022). Social comparison and envy on social media: A critical review. Current Opinion in Psychology, 45, 101302.
NIE, N. H. (2001). Sociability, Interpersonal Relations, and the Internet. Reconciling conflicting findings. American Behavioral Scientist, 45(3), 420–435.
Nurhamiza, M. (2020). Are Malaysians ready for telecommuting? A case of COVID-19 Movement Control Order. Journal of Critical Reviews, 7(18), 3979–3990.
Oly Ndubisi, N., & Kahraman, C. (2005). Teleworking adoption decision?making processes: Multinational and Malaysian firms’ comparison. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 18(2), 150-168.
Palumbo, R., Manna, R., & Cavallone, M. (2021). Beware of side effects on quality! Investigating the implications of home working on work-life balance in educational services. The TQM Journal, 33(4), 915-929.
Piazza, C. F. (2007). Workplace connectivity: A hidden ethical dilemma. California: Business and Organizational Ethics Partnership Markkula Center for Applied Ethics of Santa Clara University.
Poelmans, S., & Sahibzada, K. (2004). A multi-level model for studying the context and impact of work–family policies and culture in organizations. Human Resource Management Review, 14(4), 409-431.
Riva, G. (2008). From virtual to real body: virtual reality as embodied technology. J. Cyber Ther. Rehabil, 1, 7-22.
Riva, G., Baños, R. M., Botella, C., Wiederhold, B. K., & Gaggioli, A. (2012). Positive technology: using interactive technologies to promote positive functioning. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 15(2), 69-77.
Riva, G., Calvo, R., & Lisetti, C. (2014). Cyberpsychology and affective computing.
Riva, G., Mantovani, F., & Wiederhold, B. K. (2020). Positive technology and COVID-19. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 23(9), 581-587.
Santoso, N. R., Sulistyaningtyas, I. D., & Pratama, B. P. (2022). Transformational leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic: Strengthening employee engagement through internal communication. Journal of Communication Inquiry, 01968599221095182.
Schieman, S., & Glavin, P. (2008). Trouble at the border? Gender, flexibility at work, and the work-home interface. Social Problems, 55(4), 590-611.
Shaw, M., & Black, D. W. (2008). Internet addiction: definition, assessment, epidemiology and clinical management. CNS Drugs, 22, 353-365.
Singh, A. K., & Singh, P. K. (2019). Recent trends, current research in cyberpsychology: A literature review. Library Philosophy and Practice, NA-NA.
Soga, L. R., Bolade-Ogunfodun, Y., Mariani, M., Nasr, R., & Laker, B. (2022). Unmasking the other face of flexible working practices: A systematic literature review. Journal of Business Research, 142, 648-662.
Tams, S., Ahuja, M., Thatcher, J., & Grover, V. (2020). Worker stress in the age of mobile technology: The combined effects of perceived interruption overload and worker control. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 29(1), 101595.
Tams, S., Thatcher, J. B., & Grover, V. (2018). Concentration, competence, confidence, and capture: An experimental study of age, interruption-based technostress, and task performance. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 19(9), 2.
Timms, C., Brough, P., O’Driscoll, M., Kalliath, T., Siu, O. L., Sit, C. & Lo, D. (2014). Flexible work arrangements, work engagement, turnover intentions and psychological health. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 53(1), 83–103.
Van Zalk, N. (2016). Social anxiety moderates the links between excessive chatting and compulsive internet use. Social Anxiety Moderates the Links between Excessive Chatting and Compulsive Internet Use, 10(1).
Veal, A. J. (1993). The concept of lifestyle: a review. Leisure Studies, 12(4), 233-252.
Watermeyer, R., Knight, C., Crick, T., & Borras, M. (2023). ‘Living at work’: COVID-19, remote-working and the spatial-relational reorganization of professional services in UK universities. Higher Education, 85(6), 1317-1336.
Whang, L. S. M., & Chang, G. (2004). Lifestyles of virtual world residents: Living in the online game" Lineage". Cyberpsychology & Behavior, 7(5), 592-600.
Young, K. (2009). Internet addiction: Diagnosis and treatment considerations. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 39, 241-246.
Yu, L., Zhong, Y., Sun, Y., & Qin, G. (2023). The impact of excessive social media use at work: A usage experience–stressor–strain perspective. Behavior & Information Technology, 42(7), 985-1004.
Yusof, S. H. M., & Othman, S. H. (2018). The Cyberpsychology Factors of Internet Addiction among School Teenagers. International Journal of Innovative Computing, 8(3).
Copyright (c) 2023 Marina Hazlin Harun, Idaya Husna Mohd, Muhamad Khalil Omar, Siti Mujanah, Shereen Noranee
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Author (s) should affirm that the material has not been published previously. It has not been submitted and it is not under consideration by any other journal. At the same time author (s) need to execute a publication permission agreement to assume the responsibility of the submitted content and any omissions and errors therein. After submission of revised paper in the light of suggestions of the reviewers, the editorial team edits and formats manuscripts to bring uniformity and standardization in published material.
This work will be licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) and under condition of the license, users are free to read, copy, remix, transform, redistribute, download, print, search or link to the full texts of articles and even build upon their work as long as they credit the author for the original work. Moreover, as per journal policy author (s) hold and retain copyrights without any restrictions.
