Social Loafing

A study was conducted by Max Ringlemann studying the phenomena of social loafing. He asked several participants to pull on rope. The study proved that people pulled less when they pulled among others rather than when they pulled alone.

 Motivation picks up people and gives them the determination to carry on. However, can it solve the issue of social loafing? Depending on the circumstances, yes it can. Social loafing is the tendency of certain members to get by with less effort than what they would have put when working alone. According to this blogger it take the “Three C’s of Motivation” to avoid social loafing. The Three C’s are collaboration, content and choice. Collaboration gets everyone involved in the group. Content explains the meaning of the work. Choice allows people to decide their role in the group. Although it does take the Three C’s of Motivation to keep the group glued together it does not always solve social loafing. Social loafing has also been proven to be the cause of group members rather than the free rider. Members sometimes view certain colleagues incapable of the workload. So they don’t assign these people meaningful tasks and therefore they tend to fall back and loaf. Having a meaningful task and respectfully listening to everyone’s opinion can avoid social loafing. In other situations it also takes reward systems to avoid social loafing.

The blogger also mentions that men tend to be social loafers. I do not see the logic behind this that makes this statement true. Both men and women are susceptible to social loafing. By experience, I have worked in groups of women only and the group still exhibited signs of social loafing. The blogger claims that men have less concern for their groups. However she does not provide examples or a valid reason to explain this thought. The concern for the group is not a factor that contributes to social loafing. Social loafing is usually the cause of people relying on others of the group. Therefore they try less because there are more people to contribute to the workload and people feel less pressure to provide all their efforts.  
What motivates you to participate with groups? Do you think that men really are more susceptible to social loafing? Have you ever been the social loafer of your group, or did you experience working with a social loafer?