Social Loafing Research Articles

The Effects of Authentic Leadership and Transformational Leadership on Social Loafing: Focusing on the Mediating Effects of Psychological Empowerment and Psychological Contract Breach

The Effects of Authentic Leadership and Transformational Leadership on Social Loafing: Focusing on the Mediating Effects of Psychological Empowerment and Psychological Contract Breach

Reflective Practice on Social Loafing in College-Level Group Projects

While reflecting on my teaching strategies and researching social loafing for my dissertation, I realized this endeavor has given me a stronger grasp of the pedagogical approaches to facilitate cooperative learning. Observing, sharing, and reflecting on specific social loafing experiences using Gibbs’ reflective framework allowed me, with time, to better conceptualize the dynamics of university-level group projects. Leveraging my experience and insightful research analysis on group dysfunctionalities inside and outside the classroom has gradually reshaped my understanding of the social loafing phenomenon. Nurturing my professional development through this reflective practice allowed me to create an ongoing coaching relationship with students (and later with faculty), and to generate a list of best practices for cooperative learning that can result in higher group achievements and improved learning outcomes. Key words: Teaching, learning, Graham Gibbs’ reflective framework, reflective practice, social loafing, team-based learning, cooperative learning, groups, teams, John Dewey reflective theory, group projects, Stephen Brookfield lenses.

Reflective Practice on Social Loafing in College-Level Group Projects

While reflecting on my teaching strategies and researching social loafing for my dissertation, I realized this endeavor has given me a stronger grasp of the pedagogical approaches to facilitate cooperative learning. Observing, sharing, and reflecting on specific social loafing experiences using Gibbs’ reflective framework allowed me, with time, to better conceptualize the dynamics of university-level group projects. Leveraging my experience and insightful research analysis on group dysfunctionalities inside and outside the classroom has gradually reshaped my understanding of the social loafing phenomenon. Nurturing my professional development through this reflective practice allowed me to create an ongoing coaching relationship with students (and later with faculty), and to generate a list of best practices for cooperative learning that can result in higher group achievements and improved learning outcomes. Keywords: Teaching, learning, Graham Gibbs’ reflective framework, reflective practice, social loafing, team-based learning, cooperative learning, groups, teams, John Dewey reflective theory, group projects, Stephen Brookfield lenses

Reflective Practice on Social Loafing in College-Level Group Projects

While reflecting on my teaching strategies and researching social loafing for my dissertation, I realized this endeavor has given me a stronger grasp of the pedagogical approaches to facilitate cooperative learning. Observing, sharing, and reflecting on specific social loafing experiences using Gibbs’ reflective framework allowed me, with time, to better conceptualize the dynamics of university-level group projects. Leveraging my experience and insightful research analysis on group dysfunctionalities inside and outside the classroom has gradually reshaped my understanding of the social loafing phenomenon. Nurturing my professional development through this reflective practice allowed me to create an ongoing coaching relationship with students (and later with faculty), and to generate a list of best practices for cooperative learning that can result in higher group achievements and improved learning outcomes.

Relationship between social loafing and the self-concept

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between social loafing behaviour, self-concept and perceived organisational politics (POP). The impact of POP and self-concept upon social loafing behaviour has been the fundamental focus of the paper.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from four companies (n = 262) that combined the responses of subordinates and supervisors. The consequent impact of self-concept factors and POP on social loafing behaviour was analysed through correlations; multiple regressions and mediation were tested using Barren–Kenny and Hayes Bootstrap methods.FindingsA positively significant connection among self-concept, social loafing and POP has been found in this study. The findings show that POP significantly mediates the relationship between social loafing and self-concept.Research limitations/implicationsThis study provides evidence of the positive relationship among POP, social loafing behaviour and self-concept. Such knowledge derived may facilitate the scientific task allocation process, feedback system, team orientation, individual differences and job choice aspects, and thus help in the essential understanding of withdrawal work behaviour and perceived organisational support variables.Practical implicationsProductivity and employee satisfaction are major concerns for all organisations. This research paper provides insight to the organisations and supervisors about individual loafing attitude, self-concept and organisational politics and suggests to overcome their impact and improvement in productivity and employee satisfaction.Originality/valueThis is a pioneer paper in the sense that previously there has been no attempt to determine the relationship between POP and social loafing behaviour. Past research has mostly been conducted in the laboratory settings or classroom contexts. The longitudinal data used in this study remove prior research drawbacks and enlighten the unexplored relationships.

Low-quality LMX relationships, leader incivility, and follower responses

The present study focus on the quality of the leader-member exchange relationship as a potential antecedent of workplace incivility. Furthermore, affective and behavioral responses of those exposed to incivility by their superiors are examined. The sample is drawn from full-time employees in various industries located in eastern Norway where both leaders and their direct reports contributed with data. The results show that out-group members are at increased risk of workplace supervisory incivility. Furthermore, in accordance with Andersson and Pearson's (1999) framework, those who are exposed to incivility, will respond with negative emotional affect, which may progress to overwhelm the individual involved and manifest in social loafing. Finally, our results also show a direct association between incivility and both outcome variables. In line with social exchange theory, which conceptualizes the exchanges as a relatively rational calculative process, followers choose to reciprocate by limiting their personal effort and contribution to the organization. Taken together, unveiling two separate processes of supervisor incivility may imply that the relationships between the cognitive, emotional and behavioral aspects of incivility are more complex than previously assumed.

The Relationship between Organizational Justice and Social Loafing in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

The Relationship between Organizational Justice and Social Loafing in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

The impact of motive disposition on group performance

AbstractPeople exert less effort when performing in groups than when working alone. Based on the collective effort model’s core principle that individuals are only willing to work hard if they expect their individual contribution to be instrumental in obtaining personally satisfying outcomes, this study demonstrates the strong influence of individual motive dispositions on group performance. Motive dispositions vary from person to person and, when triggered by appropriate cues in the environment, form the current motivation and determine behavior. In experimental ad-hoc groups designed to provoke social loafing for individuals with a high need for achievement, i.e. with few opportunities for self-evaluation, team-members with a high need for achievement (N = 28) substantially reduced their effort to participate in the task at hand. Contrary, in the same situation, team-members with a high need for affiliation (N = 55) showed no social loafing at all, but social laboring instead, resulting in nearly 50% be...

Impact of Behavioral Factors on Performance of Multi‐Server Queueing Systems

Recent studies have shown that the processing speed of employees in service‐based queueing systems is impacted by various behavioral factors. However, there is limited analytical work to investigate how these behavioral factors affect the overall performance of different queueing system designs. In this study, we focus on the response of human servers to the design and congestion level of the queueing system in which they operate. Specifically, we incorporate two behavioral factors into multi‐server analytical queueing models: (1) server speedup due to increase of workload, and (2) server slowdown due to social loafing when multiple workers share the workload. We evaluate how these factors affect the performance of both the multi‐server single‐queue ( SQ) and multi‐server parallel‐queue ( PQ) system and the relative superiority of each system with respect to the number of customers in queue and the expected wait time in queue. We show that the impact of workload‐dependent speedup can be decomposed into a direct effect and indirect effect on system performance. The direct effect leads to a reduced queue size due to increased expected service rate, while the indirect effect decreases queue size due to the “smoothing” effect. We quantify the performance impacts associated with both behavioral factors, illustrate the conditions where each effect dominates, and derive threshold values for these behavioral effects beyond which PQ systems outperform SQ systems. We also consider strategic routing and its impact on the performance of PQ systems. Our analytical contributions and numerical analyses offer important managerial guidance regarding the choice of the queueing system design and provide a theoretical foundation for future research in behavioral queueing.

Relationships between Political Behaviors of School Principals and Perceived Coworkers' Social Loafing among Teachers.

Relationships between Political Behaviors of School Principals and Perceived Coworkers' Social Loafing among Teachers.

An Analysis about the Relationship between Social Loafing and Entrepreneurial Characteristics: The Case of Erdemli

Ülke ekonomisinin gelişmesi, yeni iş fırsatlarının oluşturulması ve bu iş fırsatlarının devamlılığının sağlanması için ekonominin önemli yapı taşlarından biri olan girişimcilerin desteklenmesi gerekmektedir. Girişimci, yeniliği başlatan, risk ve belirsizlik koşulları altında olasılıklardan olanak yaratan, yaratıcı düşünebilen, üretkenlik yeteneğine sahip kendi işini kuran kişidir (Soylu vd., 2015:313-314; Türkoğlu vd.,2017:2). Girişimciler yerel kalkınmanın anahtarı konumunda istihdam yaratan ve görülmeyeni görme yetenekleri sayesinde inovasyon yaratma kabiliyetine sahip bireyleri ifade etmektedir. Günümüz ekonomisinde artan rekabet koşullarına ayak uydurma çabasında olan örgütlerin, başarıyı yakalama ve sürdürebilme adına çalışanlarının örgüte kendilerini adamaları ve grup çalışmalarında verimlilik göstermeleri arzulanmaktadır. Sosyal kaytarma kavramı, örgütsel davranış örneği olarak bireylerin grup içerisinde beklenenden daha az çaba göstermesi ve neticede verimliliğinde düşüşe uğraması olarak ifade edilebilmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, sosyal kaytarma özellikleri ile girişimci kişilik özellikleri arasındaki ilişkinin analiz edilmesidir. Bu amaçla, çalışma Erdemli Ticaret ve Sanayi Odası’na bağlı olarak faaliyet gösteren işletme yöneticilerinden birebir görüşme ve anket yöntemi ile veriler elde edilmiştir. Araştırma sonuçlarına göre katılımcıların girişimci kişilik özellikleri ile sosyal kaytamra özellikleri arasında istatistiki olarak anlamlı ilişki saptanmış, katılımcıların iş kurma süreçlerine ekonomik sermaye unsurlarına olan bağlılıkları belirlenmiştir. Çalışmanın girişimcileri yerel düzlemde ele alması ve karma araştırma yöntemini kullanması bakımından önem taşıdığı düşünülmektedir.

The Prevalence and Magnitude of Social Loafing, and Biographical Influences, in a Team - Based Organizational Setting

This paper assesses the prevalence and magnitude of social loafing in a team-based organizational setting as social loafing has the potential to threaten and disrupt the effectiveness of teams. The presence of social loafing is evaluated in terms of perceived co -worker loafing, nature of tasks, visibility of contribution, group size, individual outcomes and rewards and, group cohesiveness. Biographical influences on perceptions of the factors having the potential to influence social loafing are also assessed. A consensus sample of 80 employees formed part of the sample. Data was collected using a self- developed, precoded questionnaire whose psychometric properties (validity and reliability) were assessed using Factor Analysis and Cronbach’s Coefficient Alpha respectively. The results indicate that social loafing does exist in the organization and is sparked by various factors which in descending level are perceived co -worker loafing, visibility of contribution, nature of tasks, group size, individual outcomes and rewards and, group cohesiveness. Furthermore, social loafing is moderate in magnitude and is not influenced by biographical variables (gender, age, marital status, tenure) except for the influence of age on individual outcomes and rewards. Recommendations are presented, which when implemented, have the potential to reduce the prevalence and magnitude of social loafing in a work environment.

TMX, social loafing, perceived accountability and OCB

ABSTRACTThis study intends to explore the effect of team-member exchange on perceived accountability and organizational citizenship behavior, as well as the potential moderating effects of social loafing in the relationship. Data were collected from full-time hotel employees in northern Taiwan. A convenience sampling method was used to distribute questionnaires to employees in 25 five-star international tourist hotels. A total of 550 questionnaires were distributed, of which 366 were returned and 184 were rejected due to incorrect completion and incoherent information, yielding a response rate of 66.5%. The result fills previous studies’ research gap and indicates that a moderated mediation model with perceived accountability as the mediator of the relationship between team-member exchange and organizational citizenship behavior, and with social loafing as the moderator on such negative indirect link between team-member exchange, perceived accountability, and organizational citizenship behavior.

Redundant Automation Monitoring: Four Eyes Don't See More Than Two, if Everyone Turns a Blind Eye.

In safety-critical and highly automated environments, more than one person typically monitors the system in order to increase reliability. We investigate whether the anticipated advantage of redundant automation monitoring is lost due to social loafing and whether individual performance feedback can mitigate this effect. In two experiments, participants worked on a multitasking paradigm in which one task was the monitoring and cross-checking of an automation. Participants worked either alone or with a team partner on this task. The redundant group was further subdivided. One subgroup was instructed that only team performance would be evaluated, whereas the other subgroup expected to receive individual performance feedback after the experiment. Compared to participants working alone, those who worked collectively but did not expect individual feedback performed significantly less cross-checks and found 25% fewer automation failures. Due to this social loafing effect, even the combined team performance did not surpass the performance of participants working alone. However, when participants expected individual performance feedback, their monitoring behavior and failure detection performance was similar to participants working alone and a team advantage became apparent. Social loafing in redundant automation monitoring can negate the expected gain, if individual performance feedback is not provided. These findings may motivate safety experts to evaluate whether their implementation of human redundancy is vulnerable to social loafing effects.

Reaping the Fruits of Another’s Labor: The Role of Moral Meaningfulness, Mindfulness, and Motivation in Social Loafing

Despite the popularity of teams in universities and modern organizations, they are often held back by dishonest actions, social loafing being one of them. Social loafers hide in the crowd and contribute less to the pooled effort of a team, which leads to an unfair division of work. While previous studies have mostly delved into the factors related to the task or the group in an attempt to explain social loafing, this study will instead focus on individual factors. Accordingly, the aim is to investigate the determinants of social loafing attitudes, namely moral meaningfulness and mindfulness in a university setting. We further examine the relationship between attitudes and intentions and introduce the moderating role of motivation in the attitude–intention link. The findings from a sample of 319 business students reveal that both mindfulness and moral meaningfulness are negatively related to loafing attitudes, while attitudes positively predict social loafing intentions. In addition, we find that extrinsic motivation strengthens the relationship between social loafing attitudes and intentions.

A Literature Review of Social Loafing and Teams with Group Development

We inspect thoroughly the literature in social loafing and group development. We address the connection of group development to social loafing and distinguish perceived social loafing from actual social loafing. By making such distinction, we clarify the goal of establishing a connection between group members’ perception of social loafing with their perception of the group progress. The possible future directions of research in this field are discussed.

A study of crowd-collaborative learning: an empirical study

PurposeInformation technology is widely applied for completing group tasks and enhancing learning in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment. Group members not only complete tasks but also learn ideas from other members of the group. These ideas can be better than what individual could come up with. As these ideas are referred as an upward comparison in the perspective of social comparison theory. However, there are limited studies that provide evidence in investigating how social comparison orientation (SCO) perceived by individual learner impacts on learning and group performance. The paper aims to discuss these issues.Design/methodology/approachThis study experimentally tackles this problem at both individual and group level. An experimental study was applied in this study. Structural equation modeling and hierarchical linear modeling approaches are used to validate the data.FindingsResults of 168 subjects reveal that SCO does have associations with group performance and learning performance respectively. Discussions and implications for literature and practice are given at the end of the paper.Originality/valueThis study confirms that the social genesis occurs more effectively through social interactions in CSCL. It also extends our understandings about the impacts of SCO. Results reveal that the higher level of SCO adopted by group members, the higher level of social interactions at group level can be triggered. As a result, the group performance can be enhanced. On one hand, these findings bridge the research gap in terms of investigating the notion of SCT on CSCL. On the other hand, it provides a possible solution in alleviating the problem of social loafing as commonly observed in CSCL. Therefore, these findings fulfilled the two research objectives.

Seven disagreements about cooperative learning

ABSTRACTAccounting education faces significant challenges in many countries as it seeks to meet the demand of the profession in the twenty-first century. One of those requirements is that young professionals have teamwork skills. Therefore, many universities include group work activities in their curriculum. In the daily experience, however, students and instructors sometimes hold negative feelings about cooperative learning. Therefore, this article addresses seven disagreements on cooperative learning, frequently mentioned by students and instructors. In particular, (1) group work is only invented to reduce grading time; (2) putting students into a group turns them automatically into a team; (3) teamwork certainly has a positive effect on student satisfaction; (4) free riding, social loafing, or a reduction in effort are simply inevitable; (5) peer assessment solves all problems; (6) guiding teamwork is a piece of cake; and (7) teamwork reduces the individual student’s workload. The paper gives a voice to these issues and provides suggestions for improvement in relation to any or all aspects of cooperative learning in accounting education. A theoretical framework of cooperative learning is presented and ideas to overcome many (or all of the) problems on group work are provided.

사회적 태만에 대한 조직 갈등의 영향력, 감성지능 및 문화적 성향과의 구조적 관계

사회적 태만에 대한 조직 갈등의 영향력, 감성지능 및 문화적 성향과의 구조적 관계

Gain without pay causes lazybones’ loss

PurposeBuilding on social informational processing theory, the purpose of this paper is to develop and test a theoretical model of moderated mediation in which social loafing tendency serves as an intervening mechanism that explains associations among two dimensions of leader–member relationships (formal and informal relationships, namely, leader–member exchange and leader–member guanxi) and customer service performance.Design/methodology/approachThe authors designed a field study to test the hypotheses presented in this paper. A survey of 304 supervisor–employee pairs and matched customers generally provide support for this model.FindingsThe authors found that social loafing tendency played a mediating role between leader–member relationships and customer service performance. Co-worker service-oriented OCB moderated the positive relationship between leader–member guanxi and loafing tendency.Research limitations/implicationsMore samples should be collected from both private and state-owned company. Both the informal and formal leader–member relationships should be unanimously included in examining how the leader–member relationships influence focal employee’s attitude and behavior, particularly in societies where the informal relationship plays noticeable role.Practical implicationsManagers should properly deal with formal and informal relationship with subordinates.Originality/valueThe influence of leader–member guanxi on employees and organization is controversial in extant literature. In some sense, this finding contributes to extant literature by further clarifying the influence of guanxi on the focal employee’s performance.