social loafing

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

the tendency of individuals to exert less effort when working collectively in a group than when working alone, first documented experimentally by Max Ringelmann in rope-pulling tasks in the 1880s and subsequently investigated systematically by Bibb Latané, Kipling Williams, and Stephen Harkins in the 1970s and 1980s; social loafing occurs because group settings reduce individual accountability — when the outcome is a collective product, individual contributions are less identifiable and evaluable — and because individuals may free-ride on the efforts of other group members; the effect is moderated by several factors including task importance, individual identifiability within the group, group cohesion, and cultural norms — social loafing is less pronounced in collectivist cultures where group loyalty is a stronger motivator; strategies to reduce social loafing in organisational settings include making individual contributions visible, assigning unique and meaningful roles, and building team cohesion; the effect has implications for team design, performance management, and the conditions under which collective action succeeds or fails