Social Loafing in Technology-Supported Teams

Abstract

This study examines the occurrence of social loafing in technology-supported teams along with methods for diminishing loafing. A controlled laboratory experiment with a 3×2×2 factorial design is used. The independent variables -feedback, anonymity, and group size -are manipulated experimentally. It was expected that social loafing -a widely observed phenomenonwould indeed occur in technology supported teams. It was also expected that the traditional means of reducing social loafing (i.e., identifiability and feedback) within physical work environments would also have similar effects within technology-supported work environments. As expected, social loafing is found to occur in teams operating in a technology-driven realm. An unexpected finding is that social loafing is measurable only when participants are provided self-feedback. While other forms of feedback have a positive influence on productivity, they fail to reduce this phenomenon, and identifiability of group members is found to have no observable effect on social loafing.

An Exploratory Assessment of the Linkages Between HRM Practices, Absorptive Capacity, and Innovation in Outsourcing Relationships

“…They concluded that smaller subunits perform better than their larger counterparts. These findings are consistent with the social science literature suggesting that "social loafing" may occur in larger groups (Latané et al, 1979;Suleiman and Watson, 2008). Social loafing is a well-known phenomenon that documents the decrease of individual effort when individuals work in groups (Latané et al, 1979).…”

Team Size, Dispersion, and Social Loafing in Technology-Supported Teams: A Perspective on the Theory of Moral Disengagement

“…Information systems (IS) researchers have devoted considerable attention to the problem of social loafing and productivity loss in technology-supported teams, especially in the context of electronic brainstorming (e.g., [19,28,33,74,92,97,99,104,110]). However, social loafing is not a phenomenon that is confined to brainstorming tasks.…”

“…team Size team size has been the main explanation for social loafing in technology-supported teams [97]. For example, Chidambaram and tung [19] and Valacich et al [101] provided empirical evidence that as team size increases, productivity per person decreases.…”

“…an implicit assumption underlying these two factors is that people will contribute as much in team settings as they do when working alone. However, prior research has shown that under certain conditions individuals tend to contribute less in team settings than as individuals (e.g., [19,34,97]).…”

“…a lack of social control, direct supervision, and increases in team size have been identified as facilitating conditions for social loafing in collocated face-to-face teams [56,61,73]. the dispersed settings of many technology-supported teams were expected to reduce social control and direct supervision and increase social loafing in those teams [19,85,97]. Chidambaram and tung [19] provided and empirically tested a specific model of social loafing in technology-supported teams and confirmed that team size and dispersion were indeed the two primary drivers of social loafing.…”