You Are Fired! A Method to Control and Sanction Free Riding in Group Assignments

Abstract

Marketing students are regularly required to participate in group assignments. A frequently voiced student complaint is that some group members fail to contribute their fair share of work or fail to contribute at all. “You Are Fired!” is a system for resolving the free rider problem (collecting the benefits of a group project without contributing work to the project). Most efforts to control free riding have been through the use of peer evaluations, sometimes augmented by progress reports and journals. Since it has been suggested that multiple administrations of peer appraisals are necessary, a large amount of class time may be consumed. We test the “You Are Fired!” method in two upper division marketing classes at a large state university. Students strongly disliked free riders and strongly supported using “You Are Fired! “ to sanction free riding behavior. “You Are Fired!” is a highly effective means of eliminating the worst aspects of free riding and requires minimal class time to implement. Students suffering from the free rider are empowered to correct the problem, therefore greatly increasing the student credibility of group projects.