Social Loafing: An Organizational Perspective

Abstract

The act of a person performing worse in a group setting than they would alone is known as social loafing. When working in groups, there is a tendency for less individual effort to be put in than when working alone. This is known as social loafing (Williams & Karau, 1991). It simply means that the sum of two plus two is less than four. In addition, social, psychological, and economic research has questioned the advantages of group work, arguing that it may under some conditions encourage less effort—a "social loafing effect"—in spite of the ideological allure of workplace democracy. As a result, academics are concerned about the complex link between work ethics and group discipline.