Social Loafing free essay sample

Working in groups is essential in the business world and in general many of the tasks that humans face cannot be accomplished alone. Although group projects are essential, they can harbor difficulties in communication, time management, coordination and other aspects. One phenomenon that can occur while working in groups is called social loafing. It is the conscious or unconscious decrease in exerted effort in group settings due to the decrease in social awareness. These individuals may exert much more effort when working by themselves but when in a group setting they feel less of a need to do so. Social loafing is a complex physiological subject that is very prevalent in group settings. Social loafing is caused by task interdependence, task visibility, and group size. Although it can be detrimental to the group, there are different tactics to help prevent and cure social loafing. Social loafing is the tendency to reduce individual effort when working in groups compared to the individual effort used when working alone. We will write a custom essay sample on Social Loafing or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page It is similar to ‘free riding’, a concept in which an individual does not bear a proportional amounts of work but shares all of the benefits of the group. Many studies conclude that individuals frequently exert less effort on collective tasks. An early example done in 1913 by a German researcher tested the size of a team verses the effort expended. He had teams do a rope pulling experiment and noted that was the number of group members increased, there was a decrease in overall performance. Social loafing is caused by a few different psychological tendencies. The first is called task interdependence. This is the degree of task-driven interaction among group members. If individuals perceive their tasks as more interdependent, they may find it difficult to feel a sense of personal achievement in their work. They may withhold their effort when conditions do now allow them to exhibit their accomplishments. With high task interdependence, individuals may feel that their efforts are indistinguishable from their coworkers. The second tendency is called task visibility. It is an individual belief that a supervisor is aware of their efforts. When tacks are not highly visible by others, they may not want to exert a high level of effort because there is no punishment from exerting low effort. Lastly, the size of the group can have an effect on social loafing. As a group size increases in size, individuals feel more anonymous and therefore contribute less consciously or unconsciously. It may also be more difficult to assess each group member’s contribution to projects when there are lots of members. The issue of social loafing is easily remedied if a few precautions are taken for group projects. It is important to articulate a role to each individual in the group and how that role plays a part in the completion of the group goal. Within each of the roles given to members, they should have specific, short-term, deliverable and measurable goals that can be tied directly to that individual. Evaluate each person based on these individual goals and reward those that meet and surpass their goals. Lastly, keeping the groups at a reasonable size for the task can prevent social loafing. If everyone in the group has a task, they will be less likely to cause social loafing. In conclusion, Bibliography http://www. radford. edu/~jaspelme/_private/gradsoc_articles/social%20loafing/Individual%20differences2. pdf http://comm. colorado. edu/~kuhnt/1600/liden. pdf http://www. joshuakennon. com/mental-model-social-loafing/