Developing Human Capital through Personal Web Use in the Workplace: Mapping Employee Perceptions

Personal web usage can be defined as any voluntary act of employees using their company’s web access during office hours to surf non-work related websites for non-work purposes. Previous research suggested that personal web usage is a negative force with productivity losses, congested computer resources, security costs, and the potential risk of legal liability. However, using qualitative research we investigated the attitudes of a diverse set of individuals to personal web usage. Our findings suggest that personal web usage in the workplace can be potentially constructive, although we acknowledge the potential for negative uses as well. We suggest an extension of social contract theory to explain these findings.