SHANXI UNIVERSITY OF FINANCE AND ECONOMICS

ASSIGNMENT: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

TOPIC: CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS OF

SOCIAL LAZINESS(LOAFING)

SUBMITTED BY: MARYAM ALI KAZMI (穆蕊)

(MBA 2020)
CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS OF SOCIAL LAZINESS(LOAFING)

Social loafing refers to a psychological phenomenon that has brought about a different side of
the workforce. It states that employees working in a team, performing a given task in proportion
to their strength, ultimately hindered team performance. This is because they develop an attitude
of not caring for the responsibilities assigned to them by making their small contribution and
thus, relying on the efforts of other team members. Basically Social loafing describes the
tendency of individuals to put forth less effort when they are part of a group. Because all
members of the group are pooling their effort to achieve a common goal, each member of the
group contributes less than they would if they were individually responsible. One of the first
experiments in social loafing was conducted by French agricultural engineer, Max Ringelmann
in 1913.

He asked participants to pull on a rope both alone and in groups. He found that when people
were part of a group, they made less of an effort to pull the rope than they did when working
individually.

A group of researchers replicated Ringlemann's experiment in 1974, with a few small changes.
The first group was consistent with Ringelmann's original study and contained small groups of
participants. The second panel consisted of only one real participant; the rest were confederates
who merely pretended to pull the rope.
CAUSES:
What are the reasons which can be held responsible for social loafing in an organization? Why
do the organization face such a problem? This issue is deeply rooted in the organizational factors
and group formations. After complete analysis I think the main causes of this social loafing are
as follow:
Motivation (or lack thereof): This can play an important role in determining whether social
loafing takes place. People who are less motivated by a task are more likely to engage in social
loafing when they are part of a group.
Diffusion of responsibility: People are more likely to engage in social loafing if they feel less
personally accountable for a task, and know their individual efforts have little impact on the
overall outcome. This is often used to explain the bystander effect, or the tendency to be less
likely to help a person in need when others are present.

Group size: In small groups, people are more likely to feel their efforts are more important and
will, therefore, contribute more. The larger the group, however, the less individual effort people
will extend.

Expectations: If you expect other people to slack off, you probably will as well since you don’t
want to get stuck doing all of the work. On the other hand, if you are in a group of high-achievers
who seem to be in control of everything, you might also be more likely to kick back and let them
handle all the work.

Complex Goals: The individuals usually give up when they feel that the goals set by the
management are robust and impossible to achieve.

Easily Achievable Goals: If the goals set are simple enough and does not pose any challenge for
the employees, they tend to feel demotivated. Thus, showing minimal interest in achieving them.

Goal Value: If the team members feel that the goals or objectives laid for them have no
significance and won’t add any value to the organizational objectives; they will try to slack off
from the given task.

Lack of Motivation: The demotivated workforce is another primary reason for social loafing
where the employees are not charged up to fulfil the given responsibility.

Large Group Size: At times, the group or team consist of more number of individuals than
required. Therefore, surplus members tend to become unproductive and waste their time in social
loafing.

Sense of Inferiority: The team members who are less skilled or average performers are
sometimes put in the group of super achievers.
This will develop an inferiority complex, resulting in average employees depending upon the
efficient team members for task accomplishment.

Lowered Sense of Efficacy: When the individuals feel that their efforts are undervalued or
ignored, they find it better to escape from their responsibilities through social loafing.

Meagre Sense of Responsibility: If the employees are not made individually accountable for the
given task, they would be reluctant of their duties and responsibilities. Moreover, they will prefer
to rely upon those who hold accountability to accomplish the assigned responsibility

HOW TO PREVENT SOCIAL LOAFING?

REDUCTION/SOLUTIONS TO SOCIAL LOAFING:

Social loafing not only hinders the team performance but also leads to downfall in the
competitiveness and growth of the organization.

Therefore, it is essential to encounter and deal with such activities. After a deep study I found the
3 main solutions to social loafing:

1. Keep the team small. When teams grow beyond three to five members, the potential for
social loafing is high. If there is a good reason for allowing the group to expand beyond these
parameters (such as a significant workload coupled with an extreme deadline), break the team
into sub-groups of no more than three members per group. Assign each sub-group a specific
theme that can be broken up by task between the individual members. This strategy will help you
get the same result as if you had simply limited the original group to three to five members. The
goal is to discourage individual assignments from becoming fungible–and people from not fully
participating (because the others won’t notice) or doing less work because their efforts are being
duplicated elsewhere.

2. Develop the rules of engagement. If you set ground rules for group conduct at the outset,
you’ll get less push back. Buy-in is essential when individuals are working so closely together
and need to be cohesive to achieve a desired result. Think about the importance of deadlines,
accountability and deliverables to your project. How do these factors bring you closer to the
desired result? Make sure that the parameters are communicated early and often. Then make sure
that they are enforced. If the team thinks that you’re just bluffing, they’ll undermine your
authority and you’ll lose credibility.

3. Assign separate and distinct contributions for every team member. One surefire way to
make certain that tasks do not become fungible is to make assignments that are separate and
distinct. If you assign tasks in this way, no one can rely on another team member to pick up the
slack. Each person will have to pull their own weight, which is exactly the point. The best way to
create mutually exclusive tasks is to classify project components into specific buckets. For
example: financial, communication, technology, oversight and R&D. Not only will this solve the
social loafing issue, but it also helps the team to create a clear roadmap for results and assure that
no critical aspect has been ignored.

During study I have also come to know about some other solutions to social loafing so I also
want to discuss them. According to me following are some of the measures which can be
adapted to disrupt social loafing in an organization:

1. The management must frame the tested goals and objectives which are possible to
be accomplished within a given period and but also challenges the group efforts.
Moreover, these goals should be simple to understand and well explained to every
individual.

2. The group performance should be regularly evaluated under

the benchmarking strategy, and then comparing it with the standards set or the past
performance to fill the gap.

3. The groups or teams should be formed wisely by including a limited number of

individuals; also, there should be a group orientation to develop unity and team
spirit among them.
 4. Specify the contribution of each employee in goal accomplishment, by defining
his/her task, roles and responsibilities to provide individual recognition.

5. Regular feedback sessions should be carried out to monitor the work of each in a

team, along with taking up colleague’s review on individual performance through a
collegial feedback process.

6. There should be an open communication system in the organization. The

individuals should feel free to put up their problems or queries in front of the
management. It develops a scope of improvement in their overall efficiency.

7. If the individual efforts are assisted and necessary steps are taken to solve their
problems, they tend to improve their performance while working in a group.

8. The team constitutes of individuals, and if each will be aware of his/her duties
and responsibilities in achieving a group objective, it will keep them engaged.

9. The employees must be placed in a group or team by analyzing the individual

skill sets and matching it with that required for the achievement of desired group
goals. It ensures proper utilization of the human resource.

Social loafing can be easily identified if the manager regularly takes round in the work area.

It would help him/her to figure out the behaviour, attitude, contribution and participation of each
individual, during the group activities and team efforts.

REFERENCES:

https://theinvestorsbook.com/social-loafing.html

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-social-loafing-2795883
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2393567