Social loafing
In more recent research, studies involving modern technology, such as online and distributed groups, have also shown clear evidence of social loafing.
[5] In order to counteract the likelihood of this happening, Miguel Herraez conducted a study on students where he used accountability and cooperation when unequal participation is found.
Because the pseudo-groups were isolated from coordination effects (since the participant's confederates did not physically pull the rope), Ingham proved that communication alone did not account for the effort decrease, and that motivational losses were the more likely cause of the performance decline.
When working collectively, other factors frequently determine performance, and valued outcomes are also divided among all group members.
[14] In 1985, Gabrenya, Wang, and Latane found that in both Chinese and American cultures, social loafing varies between men and women.
[15] In 1999, Naoki Kugihara conducted another study in Japan on social loafing tendencies using similar methods as Max Ringelmann's rope-pulling experiment.
He discovered that, when in a group, 40 percent more men exhibited less effort when performing the task than women, and attributed the difference to the tendency to have an interdependent self-concept.
[16] In 1989, Christopher P. Earley hypothesized that social loafing would be mitigated in collectivist cultures that focused more on achievement of the group than the individual.
Social psychological literature has found that the level of motivation one has to engage in an activity influences one's behavior in a group setting.
Karau and Williams (1993, 2001) found that motivation was highest when the individual believed that the goal was easily attainable and very valuable.
[19] Additional factors which have been found to influence the likelihood of social loafing include one's gender, cultural background, and the complexity of the task.
[1][22] For example, in the Latane, et al., study above, if a participant heard the others making less noise than anticipated, he could have lowered his effort in an attempt to equal that of the others, rather than aiming for the optimum.
[12] Individuals sometimes don't give much effort when they notice that the goals set by the management are complex and typical and are challenging to achieve.
[19] On April 14, 1994, two U.S. Air Force F-15 fighters accidentally shot down two U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters over northern Iraq, killing all 26 soldiers on board.
Snook asserts that responsibility was "spread so thin by the laws of social impact and confused authority relationships that no one felt compelled to act".
For example, builders working vigorously on a construction site while some of their colleagues are lounging on rock walls or leaning on their shovels doing nothing.
These scenarios all express the problems that social loafing creates in a workplace, and businesses seek to find a way to counteract these trends.
Larsen mentions ways that a business could change its operations in order to fight the negative effects of social loafing.
The projects assigned to these people were complex and called for diverse skills from many different individuals in order to be fully completed.
A 2008 study of 227 undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in web-enabled courses at the Naval War College (NWC) and a public university found that social loafing not only exists, but may also be prevalent in the online learning classroom.
The researchers concluded that injustice in the distribution of rewards increases social loafing, and suggest that self-perceived dominance negatively affects individual participation in group activities.
[1] The main reason people choose not to contribute to online communities surprisingly does not have to do with societal laziness, but in fact the potential contributors belief that their entries will not be taken seriously or given the credit that they deserve.
When people assess the risks involved in contributing to online communities, they generally avoid participation because of the uncertainty of who the other contributors and readers are and the fear of their work being undervalued.
Additionally, the ease and availability of operating the websites that host the online community may play a role in the age group that is most likely to participate.
Latham and Baldes (1975) assessed the practical significance of Locke's theory of goal setting by conducting an experiment with truck drivers who hauled logs from the forest to the mill.
Company cost accounting procedures indicated that this same increase in performance without goal setting would have required an expenditure of a quarter of a million dollars on the purchase of additional trucks alone.
[35] In order to reduce social loafing, a company can always focus on assessing each members contribution rather than only examining the teams accomplishments as a whole.
It is statistically proven that social loafers will tend to put in less effort because of the lack of external or internal assessment of their contributions.
[37] In a 2010 analysis of online communities, Kraut and Resnick suggest several ways to elicit contributions from users:[38] In 2008, Praveen Aggarwal and Connie O'Brien studied several hundred college students assessing what factors can reduce social loafing during group projects.
[39] For example, allocating responsibility so that each individual is spearheading certain aspects of a larger project ensures accountability and helps prevent social loafing.
