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SOCIAL LOAFING 5

Individuals Experience Social Loafing in Shared Responsibility

The concept of social loafing was first identified by a French Agricultural Engineer, Max Ringelmann who conducted a study that revealed that when working in groups, people do not meet their potential. The scholar defined potential as the maximum output of group members altogether when acting alone. The concept simply meant that an individual is likely to attain maximum potential when working individually than when working together. When group members come together, they work towards achieving a common goal. However, the perception that individual effort does not count makes members take a ride, and fail to put as much effort into individual tasks. In the end, the overall group performance will be implicated. Apart from performance, there are also concerns that social loafing hurts members' relations since they build up resentment, leading to team conflicts. Therefore, the study hypothesizes that when people know that individual performance does not matter, they are likely to social loaf and ride on the efforts of other group members.

There are many studies that have been put forth to understand the nature of social loafing and evaluate its impact on group performance. A study conducted by Gabelica et al (2022) revealed that when people work in groups, individuals put less effort because they believe their effort may not determine the performance outcomes. In this study, the researchers argue that group members tend to focus more on working on the tasks to finish, and not to learn and master the concepts. In essence, the researchers imply that in cases where individual performance matters, people are likely to put more effort compared to when the individual score will be pooled together with the scores of other participants.

In a different study, Cymek&Manzey (2022) support Gadelica's findings and pose that people exert minimal effort in cases where individual effort does not matter. In their study, the researchers argue that when people share responsibility, they exert less effort. They conducted two laboratory experiments involving blinded and non-blinded groups. In the blinded condition, the researchers found out that there was no social loafing and the group recorded a near-perfect performance. The second group which was not blinded recorded notable effort reduction but did not affect the overall group outcome. Therefore, if the group participants are informed about shared responsibility, it may reduce their efforts, but this does not necessarily affect group performance. On their part, Mihelic & Celiberg (2018) present social loafing as a dishonest behavior that makes groups less effective. When people do not perform well in a group, the overall output of the group will be impaired. In this study, it would be implied that the group average will be lower because individuals did not put maximum effort into the task. Social loafers contribute less, and by hiding in the crowd, they make the overall performance poor. When responding to Mathematics tasks, social loafers may affect the group average score, because they are likely to perform fewer tasks.

Apart from understanding the nature and implications of social loafing, scholars have gone further to recommend strategies that would address the behavior and enhance group performance. According to Lount & Wilk (2022), performance motivation is a key determinant of how much effort individuals put into a group task. In their study, the researchers found out that as much as employees work in a group, posting their individual performance will challenge them to work harder at the group level. If the concept is transferred to this study, it implies that participants are likely to do more tasks if their individual performance will be posted. Therefore, the researchers propose that posting performance will motivate individuals to be more committed, despite targeting a group goal.

Apart from performance motivation, Harding (2017) conducted a study that led to the recommendation that flocking will make employees more committed and avoid riding on the effort of others. In Harding’s quasi-experiment, students are matched according to their availability to participate and willingness to commit to a group task. On one side, there are students who are available, motivated, and committed and the group reported less free riding and social loafing. On the other side, students who are unmotivated and lack commitment were grouped together, and the group recorded high levels of free riding.

The above studies reveal that social loafing is a harmful trait that arises when group members are aware that individual efforts do not count. They focus on shared responsibility, putting minimum effort which may affect the overall group productivity. They also reveal that when working with social loafers, they put minimal effort into learning and mastery; instead, they focus on finishing the tasks without significant output. The researchers further identified performance motivation and flocking as possible strategies that will help address social loafing in groups.

Based on the revelations from previous research, the study will be founded on two hypotheses. First, we predict that if participants are informed that their individual scores will be the basis of best performance, they will attempt to solve more math problems than when they are told their scores will be pooled with the scores of two other participants. In this case, it will result in a group total score or group average score. The research is also based on the hypothesis that individuals think they do not engage in social loafing. Therefore, they all believe they completed more tasks than the average participant.

References

Cymek, D. H., &Manzey, D. (2022). Sequential human redundancy: Can social loafing diminish the safety of double checks? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. Advance online publication. 

Gabelica, C., De Maeyer, S., &Schippers, M. C. (2022). Taking a free ride: How team learning affects social loafing.  Journal of Educational Psychology,  114(4), 716.

Harding, L. M. (2018). Students of a feather “flocked” together: A group assignment method for reducing free-riding and improving group and individual learning outcomes.  Journal of marketing education,  40(2), 117-127.

Lount Jr, R. B., & Wilk, S. L. (2014). Working harder or hardly working? Posting performance eliminates social loafing and promotes social laboring in workgroups.  Management Science,  60(5), 1098-1106.

Mihelič, K. K., &Culiberg, B. (2019).Reaping the fruits of another’s labor: The role of moral meaningfulness, mindfulness, and motivation in social loafing.  Journal of Business Ethics,  160(3), 713-727.