What is social loafing?

Teamwork is a necessity in any workplace setting. However, working in teams often gives rise to social loafing.

Social loafing is the tendency of individuals to give the bare minimum when working as part of a group compared to when working alone.

Learn what causes people to put in less effort when working as a group, the negative impacts of social loafing, and the solutions you can implement to prevent it.

The term “social loafing” describes a scenario where individuals exert less effort when working in a group setting than when working independently.

Social loafing is common in group projects, team sports, and office environments. The negative impacts of social loafing include:

• Reduced team morale

• Less productivity

• Higher staff turnover rates

Ringelmann’s rope-pulling experiments

Maximilian Ringelmann first coined the social loafing concept.

Ringelmann carried out an experiment with men pulling a rope. During the experiment, he measured the force exerted when the men pulled the rope alone and when they pulled it with other group members.

The results showed that they exerted more force on the rope when working alone. As the group size increased, the amount of force exerted by each individual decreased.

Ringelmann’s experiment further concluded that larger groups have heightened tendencies toward social loafing than smaller groups.

Social loafing versus the bystander effect

The bystander effect is a social phenomenon where someone fails to act or take responsibility in a situation simply because they assume someone else will. It suggests that when people are bystanders, they are less motivated to help than if they were alone.

Social loafing and the bystander effect have a common cause: diffusing responsibility. In other words, people are hesitant to take the initiative and prefer others to step up.

Social loafing occurs in all settings, from the workplace to sports teams. Here are some real-world examples:

Social loafing in social settings

• Failing to clean up communal spaces simply because someone else is designated to perform the task

• Pretending to clap or sing in a large social crowd

• Not going to vote because you think enough other people will vote

• Not participating and relying on the instructor in group fitness sessions

Social loafing in the workplace

• Not actively participating (muting yourself, for example) in workplace virtual calls

• Not contributing to group projects at work (not helping your colleagues write a report or create a presentation, for example)

Social loafing can occur in work projects if responsibilities are poorly defined.

Social loafing in sports

• Not feeling motivated to play at your best in a team sport like soccer. Players may be less motivated and more likely to engage in social loafing when they are unsure of how they contribute to the bigger picture.

• Not exerting all your effort on the rope when playing tug-of-war

In sports, social loafing occurs because there is a general objective as a team but no individual goals for each team member. Some team members may put in less effort because they don’t think they will be blamed for a negative outcome.

Identifying the signs of social loafing is the first step to curbing its negative effects. Here are some signs to watch out for:

• A decrease in a team member’s motivation during a group activity

• Reduced individual accountability

• Lack of initiative and increased dependency on a few individuals

• An uptick in complaints about workload distribution

• A decline in teamwork productivity leading to stagnant team growth and development

• Suppressed creativity and innovation

Here are some of the causes of social loafing in an organization:

Individual contributions are not evaluated

People tend to become social loafers when individual contribution isn’t valued. This might occur when there’s no clear evaluation of tasks contributed by each team member. Without metrics to capture individual contributions, there’s a higher likelihood of underperformance.

Low perception of the task’s meaning and value

Social loafing can occur when people don’t understand why they are doing something. Motivation and responsibility decline without clear goals, and people need to understand why the goals matter.

To curb this problem, ensure employees understand the project’s goals and why they are important to the organization. They are most likely to contribute when they feel the goals are meaningful. A high perception of meaning leads to better outcomes.

Expecting teammates to overcompensate

Some group members may feel the team can complete tasks without their input despite other team members having to overcompensate. Large group size is a risk factor for social loafing in this scenario.

Working with strangers

Putting strangers together to work on a task can result in social loafing as it causes low confidence and trust issues. People who know each other tend to communicate more effectively than strangers because they share common knowledge. They will rely on each other for feedback and commit to the group’s goals.

Ultimately, group members who understand each other well are less likely to engage in social loafing.

Low perception of responsibility or worth of input

People often lose their sense of responsibility in large groups. In other words, they are less concerned about poor team performance. Social loafing can occur when individuals are not held directly accountable for the outcomes of tasks, as nobody is encouraging them to do their best.

Output without quantifiable significance

Someone may engage in social loafing when they feel their assigned task has little significance to them in the long run. They may see the effort as a waste of time, which encourages them to do the bare minimum.

To avoid this, ensure that every group member knows how their contribution fits into the bigger picture and how the objectives relate to their individual goals.

Social loafing can be problematic for organizations. Fortunately, managers can employ several strategies to reduce it and encourage greater accountability.

Create clear assignments

Unclear roles and responsibilities are a common cause of social loafing. To reduce this, make sure each team member is assigned clear tasks. Everyone is then held accountable for their tasks and aware of the effort required.

Match tasks with skills and experience

Social loafing is common when people find something particularly challenging or complex. Employees have unique strengths and weaknesses, so assign tasks based on their individual skills and experience.

Delegating tasks based on skills and experience brings team alignment and enhances individual visibility. What’s more, people are more likely to get tasks done well and on time when they are assigned tasks they are good at.

Keep teams small

Ringelmann says that the larger the team, the greater the chances of social loafing. To reduce social loafing, keep teams small or divide them into subgroups. This will reduce anonymity and ensure that each team member is held accountable.

Smaller groups are easier to manage and foster a better team spirit. Jeff Bezos has been credited with suggesting you should be able to feed a team with two pizzas. Teams of this size can be nimble and highly productive. In addition, recognizing individual contributions is easier in these smaller groups compared to when working with a larger group.

Increase supervision and check in regularly

Supervision enables you to remind team members of their performance expectations and monitor the group’s output. Increasing supervision will ensure that team members make their best effort and take ownership of their work. Through regular check-ins, you can compare group performance with set standards and identify strategies to make improvements.

Another strategy is enforcing a culture of peer-to-peer accountability—a vital element of effective teamwork. This is very powerful as it allows individuals to hold others accountable.

Build a feedback culture

Publicly acknowledging individuals who accomplish their assigned tasks increases employee morale and encourages everyone to strive for success. Individual recognition shows the team that you value their contributions, and you may inspire social loafers to exert their best efforts.

You can reward achievements in various ways: offering monetary prizes, recognizing top achievers at daily meetings or via emails, or offering lunches with the boss.

Another effective method is offering access to a VIP event at the end of the quarter or year. This motivates the team to achieve the best results, reduces the need for micro-management, and introduces self-management across the group.

You can also reduce social loafing by regularly asking your team for feedback. Feedback from team members will allow you to view activity across the group and address the signs of social loafing early.

Make tasks cooperative

Cooperative tasks ensure group members work together and put their best effort into making a project successful. Making tasks cooperative allows team members to collaborate and brainstorm together, reducing the tendency to social loaf. It also enables team members to learn from each other and solve problems quickly.

Organizations should foster a collectivistic orientation, which increases cooperation. To achieve this, provide platforms such as monthly workshops for team members to share ideas, seek clarification, and give feedback.

Foster personal relationships among team members

Humans are social beings, so forming personal relations is a fundamental need. Fostering personal relationships will reduce conflict and enable team members to maintain a good rapport even when conflict is unavoidable. It makes the work environment more productive and rewarding and prevents social loafing.

Encourage the following behaviors in your team to foster strong relationships between team members:

• Communicating openly and respectfully

• Being present and attentive when a group member is talking

• Not making assumptions and instead seeking clarification when something is unclear

• Being mindful of your tone when talking to group members

• Being friendly and approachable

• Showing empathy

• Building a sense of belonging (for example, by attending a team lunch)

Other ways to prevent social loafing

• Present individuals with data by displaying essential metrics on a dashboard. This can illustrate the tasks needed to accomplish goals.

• Provide clarity in the business vision by giving people a clear mission and purpose. This helps them feel connected to what they are doing as part of a larger organization, reuniting everyone with a common goal.

• Consider using stack ranking, a method often used in larger firms. Stack ranking involves ranking team members by performance, which introduces a natural performance push.

• Introduce software to help track and control staff output.

Process loss occurs when a group works on something that fails. Social loafing can cause process loss as it results in individuals making less effort.

There are two types of social loafing:

• The free rider effect occurs when group members don’t exert effort because they are working in a team and rely on others to make the effort for them.

• The sucker effect is a result of the free rider effect. It occurs when a group’s top performers start underperforming due to the behaviors of free riders.

Free riding refers to obtaining an outcome without putting in effort. Social loafing is the tendency to put in less effort because you are part of a group. The free rider effect is a type of social loafing.

Social loafing has adverse effects in businesses, workplaces, and social settings. For example, it leads to reduced productivity in workplaces. In businesses, social loafing significantly affects profits. In social settings, it could lead to decreased motivation and resentment among social group members.