Have you ever wondered what causes the organization or team to have such this problem?

Why
social loafing has a high percentage to occur in the group? Some of the core that causes social loafing
are covered below:

1) Language Barrier

Sometimes, free riding happened because of the language barrier or difficult for them to understand
the task that given if its not their mother tongue. It takes time for them to understand the task and
will cause them to lose focus on the task that has been instructed. In addition, the task becomes slow
and requires the help of the other group members and can cause more work for their members. The
members would consider the person as free rider because they did not do the task as divided.

2) self-disclosure

Moreover, according to research of Woodman, Roberts, Hardy, Callow and Rogers (2011) said that
people tend to be lazy if the task that given could not stand out themselves but they will cooperate
with the task if there is a chance to highlight themselves. This is proven with the research of Karau
and Williams (1993) which shows that the individuals will show higher effort if the task has a major
effect for the group.

3) Group size

Therefore, group size is another factor that affects social laziness. Although this is not true for big
groups, the contributions of individuals generally value more when they operate in a small group. As
previously indicated, the Ringelmann effect is apparent, which indicates that individuals tend to put
less effort into participating in larger groups. People feel that their efforts are not as vital because
being a part of a larger group reduces their chance of being noticed.

4) Absence of group

Last but not least, if the group rarely do a group discussion, the members might depend on the active
members to produce the group result. If a group does not set a progression for the task, it will open
up the opportunities to the members to be a free rider because they will do their work without much
enthusiasm and last minute. It will cause the task not completed completely and effect the other
members marks.

References:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258124487_The_problem_of_free-
riding_in_group_projects_Looking_beyond_social_loafing_as_reason_for_non-contribution

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
322354261_Social_Loafing_and_Group_Performance_A_Literature_Review

https://fellow.app/blog/productivity/social-loafing-in-the-workplace-what-it-is-and-how-to-avoid-
it/#of

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/
326613133_Reducing_Free_Riding_Behaviour_in_Collaborative_Work_with_Computer_Supported_T
ools