The Incidence of Dysfunctional Internet Usage in Ghana: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

Despite the potential and tremendous opportunities the internet offers for employees to improve their work and productivity, the internet has become a source of unproductiveness given the potential for its misuse. Most of the literature on the dysfunctional use of the internet amongst employees tends to focus solely on advanced economies. Given the fact that the phenomenon of employers placing internet on employees’ desktops is relatively new in Ghana and the possible cultural influences on the type and extent of internet use, this paper investigated the non-work-related use of the internet amongst employees of Ghanaian organizations in both the private and public sector. We found that the use of the internet for non-work-related activities amongst Ghanaian employees is widespread and there exists an association between this case of dysfunctional internet usage and man-hour losses. Amongst other things, we recommend that managers employ internet use policies and prohibitions in dealing with the problem since the study found that these interventions are not in place.

Keywords: Internet, internet use, Ghana, employee productivity, man-hour losses, employees