A five best practices
1. Create a common work culture: Friends are often less likely to 'socially loaf' on work teams (Kunishima & Welte 2004).
2. Using dispersed teams with a lack of social facilitation factors can be undercut by increasing levels of difficulty and responsibility "As tasks become more difficult and participants perceive they can make a unique contribution to the task, social loafing decreases" (Kunishima & Welte 2004).
3. Task uniqueness -- by ensuring members of the work teams have specifically defined roles, there is less of a chance to feel as if others can pick up the slack (Kunishima & Welte 2004).
5. Punishment for loafing may be effective but cannot be the only solution: "threats of punishment improved productivity levels, but did not eliminate the social loafing effect" according to researchers (Kunishima & Welte 2004).
Final recommendations for new managers
Creating individual as well as group accountability, making individuals feel as if their contribution is uniquely important and valuable, and including mechanisms for individual accountability are all vital parts of reducing the social loafing effect. Additionally, fostering social facilitation though team exercises and group meetings and monitoring is essential to create a common sense of purpose and to increase the emotional investment of group members. Managers must finally be cognizant of different attitudes towards individualism within different work cultures, particularly when dealing with geographically and culturally dispersed and diverse work teams, so that individualism does not result in social loafing by some team members.
Big Brother eyes 'boost honesty' (2006, June 28). BBC News. Retrieved February 10, 2009 at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5120662.stm
Coleman, Andrew. (2001). Social loafing. The Encyclopedia of Psychology. Retrieved February 10, 2009 at http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O87-socialloafing.html
Kunishima, Jill & Kasi Welte. (2004, March) Effects of punishment threats on social loafing
Psychological & Social Sciences 10.3. Retrieved February 10, 2009 at http://www.jyi.org/volumes/volume10/issue3/articles/kunishima.html
Latane, B., Williams, K., & Harkins, S. (2009). Many hands make light the work: The causes and consequences of social loafing. JPSP. 37: 822-832. Retrieved February 10, 2009 at http://faculty.babson.edu/krollag/org_site/soc_psych/latane_soc_loaf.html
Social facilitation. (2009). Changing Minds. Retrieved February 10, 2009 at http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/social_facilitation.htm
Social loafing (2009). Changing Minds. Retrieved February 10, 2009 at http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/social_loafing.htm
Sai, Yasutaka. (2000). The eight core values of the Japanese Businessman: Toward an understanding of Japanese Management. Jaico Publishing House. Excerpt Retrieved February 10, 2009 at http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2001/02/13/stories/13130179.htm
Social Loafing
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