Unpacking the Free-Riding Construct for Organizational Research

Abstract

Free-riding has been studied extensively in organizational research, yet the assumptions on which it is based on are rarely questioned. Free-riders are team members who receive shared team rewards without investing equitable individual effort into the team task, and organizational scholars commonly assume that employees choose to free-ride despite possessing the aptitude to contribute adequately to the team. However, the increasing complexity of team tasks and team compositions suggest that the distribution of responsibilities in teams can be highly fluid and is rarely equal among members. This results in variant forms of free-riding that may deviate from how scholars conventionally understood the construct. Therefore, the primary aim of this paper is to unpack the construct of free-riding. First, we review theories on working in teams to offer an overview of underlying mechanisms that shape individual motivation and effort on team tasks. Second, we compare the literature on shirking, social loafing, and free-riding, to clarify their similarities and differences. Next, we argue that free-riding is better understood as a multidimensional construct, and propose a 2 × 2 matrix on the dimensions of locus of causality and controllability of individual effort to untangle the construct. We then introduce and describe the four types of free- riders in the matrix- parasite, sponge, hitchhiker, and reserve, and propose how they relate uniquely to team productivity and viability. Finally, we explain how this matrix contributes to theory, discuss its limitations, and identify potential directions for future research.