Social Loafing

Social Loafing Essay
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Social loafing is a person’s inclination to reduce their contribution or effort compared to their counterparts performing the same activity within a group. It can also be delineated as a person’s less-than-expected effort when engaging in group work (Tosuntaş, 2020). I experienced social loafing in the workplace when working on a team project. Some team members failed to achieve their fair share of the deliverables, leading to frustration and a lack of progress among the other members. We had common goals, thus making some members feel they did not have to work as hard to reach them. Some group members believed that they worked harder compared to others. They felt that other team members were not putting in the same amount of energy and time; thus, their efforts decreased. This made the set goal an end rather than a crucial step in the long journey of completing the project. This led to reduced productivity and the inability to complete the project on time and within the allocated budget.
Social loafing is an important problem in social psychology and thus requires subject-informed intervention. For instance, psychological encouragement is a practical strategy to encourage social loafers to carry their weight because it improves individual performance. Social loafing behaviors will plummet with increased psychological motivation. Individual psychological encouragement makes the social loafer feel competent in completing their tasks and can execute them independently (Daryono & Foertsch, 2023). Creating an evaluation system to appraise the team member’s contributions to the project was also crucial. Performance would be measured in terms of timeliness, effectiveness, satisfaction, and efficiency by using the behaviors and actions of the respective team members (Daryono & Foertsch, 2023). The evaluation system will entail informing the team members in advance on how individual contributions and team results will be evaluated. This would motivate the social loafers to genuinely contribute toward achieving project deliverables and milestones.
References
Daryono, D., & Foertsch, C. (2023). The Role of Active Social Loafing and Psychological Encouragement in Human Capital Development. Jurnal Manajemen Bisnis, 14(1), 143-161. http...