The digital era has brought a change in corporate procedures and norms.

Many of us have entered a

virtual world because of COVID-19, which presents new problems to leaders. Virtual is not the same as
physical, and teamwork and productivity will not automatically keep going in a virtual environment.
Virtual teaming has numerous advantages, but it also increases the danger of dissonance and lack of
team collaboration, which may harm team trust as well as employee engagement if it is not handled
properly. One significant concern about the continued virtual meets is if it would lead to "social loafing,"
which many consider being the greatest enemy of efficiency and growth.

Social loafing is a psychological phenomenon that occurs when there is a shift of emphasis from
individual performance to team performance. It states that employees working in a group underperform
in relation to their potential, causing the group's performance to fall. This is because they adopt a casual
attitude to their allotted responsibilities by contributing minimally and depending on the contributions
of other team members.

The idea of social loafing, also known as the Ringelmann effect, has denied a strong assumption that
"people perform better while working together."
REETIKA’S PART

Types of Social Loafing

There are 2 significant ways in which social loafing takes place in an organization:

1. Free-Rider Effect:

One or more co-workers may have a careless attitude toward the collective goals, believing that their
participation to the job is not required.

2. Sucker Effect:

The other members of the team feel overburdened with labour because of the free-rider effect. This is
due to the fact that they are now required to do the tasks of such free riders as well, without receiving
any further appreciation.

Causes of social loafing:

1. Goal of the team:

Sometimes goals set by the team manager or the team itself can be complex and someone might think it is difficult
to achieve.

Sometimes some can feel that goal is easy to achieve. Employee may feel that goal is not challenging enough and
tend to get demotivated. As a result, they show little enthusiasm in accomplishing them.

If team members believe that the objectives/goal set for them are meaningless/ insignificant and will not bring
value to the corporate objectives, they will attempt to slack off on the assigned activity.

2. Lack of Motivation:
Another major cause of social loafing is a disengaged workforce, in which employees are not motivated to carry
out their responsibilities.

3. Large group size:

At times, the group or team includes more people than is necessary. As a result, excess members become
unproductive.

4. Sense of Inferiority:

Group members who are less proficient or ordinary performers are occasionally grouped with the top achievers.
This will lead to an inferiority mentality, with ordinary employees relying on efficient team members to complete
tasks.

5. Lowered sense of efficacy:

When people believe that their contributions are being disregarded or overlooked, they choose to avoid their
obligations via social loafing.

6. Meagre sense of responsibility:

Employees will be hesitant to perform their obligations and responsibilities if they are not held specifically liable
for the assigned work.

Impact of social loafing:

Social loafing has a detrimental influence on group performance, reducing the overall efficiency of the business.

Some adverse effects of social loafing can be:

1. Poor Team spirit:

If a few individuals become lethargic and hesitant, contributing the least in the group, the entire team feels
demoralized and discouraged.

2. Negativity in the team:

The social loafers' fleeing attitude diffused dissatisfaction across the group. As a result, team efficiency suffers.

3. Hindering development:

If social loafing persists for an extended period of time, the organization's growth will eventually slow.

4. Resources wasting:
Human resources are expensive, and as a result of social loafing, employees become ineffective for the firm.

5. Demotivating other hard-working employees:

SOCIAL LOAFING IN VIRTUAL TEAMS

Till now we have learnt about social loafing, its type, its causes, and effects. Now we will see social loafing in
virtual teams.

Main causes of social loafing in virtual teams are:

· Geographic dispersion
· Reliance on electronic communication

These two are additional causes other than goal of teams, lack of motivation, lowered sense of efficacy, large group
size and meagre sense of duty.

There are some factors like team size, team dispersion, reliance on electronic communication, anonymity,
feedback, and social comparison.

These factors can be divided into 2 categories

· Team Design issue- These are the factors which add on to social loafing virtually. Team size, Team
dispersion, Reliance on electronic communication
· Individual motivational mechanism- These factors decrease social loafing virtually. anonymity, feedback,
social comparison. This study looked at the effects of recognising an individual's contribution, offering
feedback on that contribution, and evaluating an individual's contribution to that of others via social
comparisons.

Some other major causes of social loafing in virtual teams are :

· Lack of ability to employ social controls: According to behavior output control theory (BOCT), human
behavior may be changed by comparing members' behavior to a specified set of expectations and holding
them responsible for satisfying those expectations. In teams, these established expectations are behaviors
that team members have decided are necessary to fulfil the team's goals and objectives.

BOCT considers team controls to be a tool for ensuring that team members' actions are in line with the team's goals
and objectives. The efficacy of team controls, according to BOCT, should be measured by whether team members
exhibit the pre-specified behaviors.

· Lack of trust: Trust is a necessary component for good team collaboration. Team trust has been linked to
improved team performance. Increases in collaboration, coordination, and communication are frequently
 the cause of this. There are at least two kinds of trust: trust based on skill or competency and trust based on
emotion and like.

Cognitive- based trust: Cognitive-based trust is founded on judgments and self-interest as they relate to
performance and successes in direct interactions with a partner.

Affective- based trust: Affective trust is founded on an emotional link that frequently extends beyond a corporate
or professional relationship or past knowledge of performance. Affective-based trust is founded on the emotional
relationships that bind people in a performance-related circumstance.