Social Loafing

What is social loafing?

Everyone has experienced being part of a group where there are some group members who don’t work as hard as they are expected to.  This is known as social loafing (or the Ringelmann Effect – Ringelmann being the psychologist who initially researched the concept).  Social loafing is defined as ‘the reduction of individual effort exerted when people work in groups compared to when they work alone’ (Forsyth, 2010), leading to a reduction in group productivity.  The group will also be missing the skills of the loafer which could have a huge effect on performance and results, for example if a striker in a football team starts to loaf, it is likely the results will depict this.  This causes other team members to become dissatisfied and frustrated because their work load has increased and because the behaviour of others is affecting their success, leading to a decrease in group cohesion. 

Why does it happen?

Social loafing is most likely to occur when the group are not only working towards the same goal but when they’re performing the same task - e.g. rowing - (Cashmore, 2008) but they feel their individual efforts won’t be recognised and there will be no consequences for not contributing.  Similar to this, loafing also occurs when an individual’s performance is not being monitored; it is only being monitored as a group.  When the group is working towards a common goal, they might feel they don’t have to do as much work because the other group members will make up for it, but they will still receive the same credit – this is known as free riding.  Others contribute less to group effort because they feel other members of the group are being lazy, so they reduce their effort to match that of the others – this is known as the sucker effect.  Another example is when compensation is not distributed fairly between the team.  For example, if one member of a football team receives a higher monetary reward for scoring than another player, then the other player will be less motivated to score as they think it’s unfair.  The final reason is a lack of cohesion.  In a non-cohesive group, members don’t fear letting others down because there is no bond between them, so it is quite likely that loafing will occur.

Overcoming Social Loafing

Having looked at the causes of social loafing, there may be some relatively simple solutions which will increase motivation.  It’s important that individual efforts within the team are recognised.  This could be by the coach giving praise, so members understand the value of their contribution, or tangible rewards (for example a bonus payment for scoring or ‘Player of the Month’ award.  Recognition doesn’t have to a reward though, it could be to monitor the performance of each player and provide statistics of their performance (cricket for example).  Highlighting different member’s strengths and weaknesses will demonstrate the importance of each individual’s role within the team. It is also a form of evaluation which will encourage the individual to become more active in fulfilling their role within the team.  For example, a netball player who is often lazy in games (not running into spaces to receive passes for example) will try harder when a scout from another team is watching.  It will also make the team more likely to encourage any loafers to become involved if they realise what benefit they have to team performance – for example, an athletics club fastest 100m runner who doesn’t want to be a part of the relay team might be persuaded because the team would score more points with them in the relay team.  Finally, a coach should try and establish stronger relationships between the team members and build team cohesion.  This will makes the ties between the loafer and the group stronger and they are less likely to let them down.  

What role does a leader play?

A lot of these solutions will have to be implemented by a coach or team captain.  It’s important that the group leader highlights the importance of the role each member plays, and gives feedback to them as individuals not just as a group.  A leader also has to take the responsibility of confronting the loafer.  This can be done on a one-to-one basis to allow the loafer to give reasons for their lack of effort, and the leader can attempt to solve any problems.  It’s also an ideal time to again highlight the importance of their role within the team talking specifically to them, and support and encourage them to become more active in their role.

By putting these solutions in place, there should be a reduction in social loafing resulting in an increase in group productivity.  It’s important to reduce social loafing because every member of a team has strengths that other people don’t possess, so everyone must apply maximum effort when completing group tasks to reach the groups potential.

Bibliography

Wikibooks (2012) Managing Team and Groups/Social Loafing [online] Available from: http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Managing_Groups_and_Teams/Social_Loafing [Accessed 11th January 2013]

References

Cashmore, E. (2008) Sport and Exercise Psychology: The Key Concepts (2nd Ed.) Routledge: Oxon.

Forsyth, D. (2010) Group Dynamics (5th Ed.) Wadsworth Cengage Learning: California.