THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL LOAFING.

Social loafing has been a phenomenon where people exhibit a sizable decrease in individual
effort when performing in a group project or assignment. The origins of social loafing,
according to Simms, A (2014), begin with "The Ringelmann Effect," which explains the
inclination for people to work less effectively in groups. Simms, A (2014) discovered that it
was renamed "social loafing" after they showed that individual effort declines when people
work in groups. In this case, we summarize that social loafing is actually a habitual response,
given that many people have been found suspectable to social loafing in group tasks (Latané,
B et al, 1979). Latane 1979 has identified lack of trust, laziness, hide in the crowd, non-
contributing group members and unequal workload. There are a lot of negative impacts on
social loafing that have been identified such as impact on society, impact on group and
impact on self which will be discussed below.

1) IMPACT ON SOCIETY

Since social loafing implies a reduction in group efforts, individuals tend to procrastinate and
fail to perform their duties and responsibilities to the group (Ferarri, J.R, 2012) which may
develop into a habit in our daily lives. The likelihood that the future generation will be
unmotivated is high and many people may start to become a free-rider at an early age.
Without a doubt, they will grow up and continue to practice this negative behavior
throughout their lives. However, studies by Eliana R et al (2020) shows that a person who are
more driven to succeed will have less tendency to engage in social loafing, given that there
are clear and achievable objectives and guidance, defined individuals roles and
responsibilities and last but not least suitable of competency in assigning tasks within the
group members.

2) IMPACT ON GROUP

There are several impacts of social loafing on group performances. According to Piezon, S.L
(2005), besides free-riding which an individual fails to perform the best, it entails lack of
group participation and ultimately demotivates hard working team members. Due to free-
riders effect and sucker effect, the performing team members get demoralized. Hence they
too try to slack off from the assigned task considering it as a burden. The increase workload
will severely affect the mental health of group members. Individual scores would be
unidentifiable when group performs together which individuals could not receive precise
credit nor assign blame for performance. According to Marina Tkachenko (2018), the
escaping attitude of social loafers spread negativity in the whole group. It thus brings down
team performance and productivity. Not only that, groupmates will build up a hatred
feelings towards the free rider. Its understandable that the feeling will be on the surface but
it’s definitely not a good way to solve the presence of the free rider in the group. The social
loafer will create a really negative environment in the group that will demotivate the whole
group members as they assume that the work that has been assigned was taken lightly by
the free rider. Social loafing will have a negative impact on the group work and could lead to
lower quality of work produced.
3) IMPACT ON SELF

Social loafing will affect oneself when an individual in a group feel less responsible for the
outcomes and can easily hide in the crowd. They would not be accountable for their action
and reluctant to put their best effort. Some may believe that their effort is not needed for
the group successes which could lead to lack of motivation and drive. If the group succeeds,
the social loafers free-ride ad celebrate on other group members effort and success. Thus,
enjoying the fruit of success without putting much work. Underutilize skill and talent would
result in missed opportunities in personal growth and success in workplace. This would
cause dissatisfaction at work and will suffer burnout and depression will affect work
performance and productivity. Hence, it is possible if they will get fired from their job.
Society also tends to look down upon social loafers. It will lower their self-esteem.
Society will also avoid on being in the same group with them as free riders failed to give
their trust to their colleagues (Latane, 1979). Society also will not tolerate this kind of person
in their lives as it brings too much burden and harm to a person. Lastly, society will reject
social loafers especially if they do not take their job seriously and does not put in their best
effort in any given tasks.

Conclusion

It is important to address social loafing to ensure the best outcome of group works and
assignments. There are several ways to curb social loafing which is xxxx,xxxx,xxxxx,xxxx,xxxxx
By implementing these strategies, groups can minimize the negative impacts on groups, self
and society and maximize success.

References

Simms, A., & Nichols, T. (2014). Social loafing: A review of the literature. Journal of
Management Policy and Practice, 15(1), 58.

Latané, B., Williams, K., & Harkins, S. (1979). Many hands make light the work: The causes
and consequences of social loafing. Journal of personality and social psychology, 37(6), 822.

Ferrari, J. R., & Pychyl, T. A. (2012). " If I Wait, My Partner Will Do It:" The Role of
Conscientiousness as a Mediator in the Relation of Academic Procrastination and Perceived
Social Loafing. North American Journal of Psychology, 14(1).

Eliana, R., & Novliadi, F. (2020). Motivation and Social Loafing Tendency as Determinant
of Academic Achievement. Scite Press, 7, 1720-1723.

Piezon, S. L., & Donaldson, R. L. (2005). Online groups and social loafing: Understanding
student-group interactions. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 8(4), 1-11.
Tkachenko, M (2018), Benefitting From Teamwork: Looking at the Positive and Negative
Effects of Synergy, https://jpt.spe.org/twa/benefitting-teamwork-looking-positive-and-
negative-effects-synergy