Social Loafing

Ever worked on in a group project or team where you felt like not everyone was pulling their weight? It's more common than you think and happens in all cultures and setups.

People may exert less effort in a group situation than when working alone. Most often it is not conscious. Even for a small two person group, you will find that their efforts, 1+1, will be less than 2. This phenomenon is known as Ringelmann effect or social loafing. If Price's law is to be believed, it always happens. But as discussed, Price's law has no solution. With this, we can identify a few causes and try to improve productivity.

Why does it happen?

Here are a few reasons why it happens:

1. Unclear purpose: if you are not sure how your work contributes to the overall goal.
2. Underwhelming purpose: if the task at hand seems unimportant or boring.
3. Diffusion of responsibility: you feel less accountable for the outcome.
4. Weak group cohesion: if the group lacks a strong sense of unity or connection.
5. Dispensability of effort: if you feel that your efforts are overlooked or not recognized by the group.
6. Sucker effect aversion: if you feel that others will take credit for your work.
7. Bystander effect: if you think someone else will do it.
8. Expectation: if people expect there will be some loafing, they won't put their best foot forward.

There is a whole bunch of other reasons why social loafing can occur.

What can be done about it?

Here are some common approaches:

Set Good Goals

There is a lot of overlap with this and building high performance teams. For teams to perform maximally, they need to work towards a clear and worthwhile goal (1, 2). Reduce doubt as much as possible around what we are setting out to accomplish and how.

When you try to do this, you will inevitably encounter those who will not be 100% aligned. Maybe they have a different idea that they think is better. Maybe they think it is not worth doing. You are going to have to manage that.

In the first example, you will need to put the time in and identify the best way forward. It can be as simple as spending half an hour doing some pros and cons. The focus and the framing should be to find the best solution. You are not going to win any friends with a dismissive attitude or trying to talk them into following your plan.

Figuring out a better idea does not automatically mean that it should be followed. Something, for example, might be a better long term solution. But maybe the technology to do it does not exist yet or your don't have the resources. Whatever the reason is, if you have promising stuff who is trying to help the team, you need to discuss these, make an explicit decision about why you are following a course of action. It should never be shut up and do what I say. That will feed into the social loafing dynamic (5).

Foster Individual Accountability

If you want a certain output out of someone, you need to make them accountable for it (3). If they are not individually accountable for it, and they are individually accountable for some other work, what do you think they will prioritise?

A lot of focus should be placed on the word "Individually". If you put two people responsible for something, unless they are clones of each other, there will either be a lot of conflict or one will be a bit more reserved. This is why, it is never a good idea to put two team leads in a team for example. How much more will there be if you put 3 or more people responsible for the same thing?

This is doubly bad. First because loafing happens. Secondly, if people who loaf have type A personality, they also stress because they are not contributing enough and the team social dynamic prohibits them from doing more. For example, maybe someone has taken charge and come up with a plan that the rest of the team seems to agree with and they don't want to be the party pooper. Humans have very powerful instincts in that department to not go against the group.

The same thing can work wonders if you make the team responsible and then the team leader breaks the task and makes individuals responsible for parts of it. If the team leader takes on direct responsibility and starts micromanaging the team to do parts the way they like it, there will be loafing as well (3, 5). Trying to make things more efficient, they will make it far more inefficient.

Foster Initiative

If you want people to contribute more, here is the secret: you have to let them.

You have to let them take initiative, think it was their idea, and validate them when they take initiative.

Let me give the scenario of two engineering managers:

First manager is highly competent technically. He is super involved in all the designs and decision making. He is the go to person for all things that involve his teams.

Second manager is a lot more hands off. She is not that competent technically. When people ask her tough questions, she redirect's them to the specific team leads or individual contributors.

Whose team leads and members will have less loafing?

It's almost always going to be the second manager's. Because of her lack of technical skill, leaders and ICs under her will take a lot more ownership and accountability. This will create a positive feedback loop where they are more engaged and are motivated to contribute more. If you are measuring this stuff with things like 360 feedback, peer reviews, number of demos etc, you will get a lot more out of this team. The first team will be more like a one man show (3).

Foster Unity

Create a group myth (4). For example, you are the "Red Team." This stuff is powerful at all level.

Ever had a habit or addiction that was impossible to overcome? Chances are, you made that thing part of your identity. For example, you told yourself that you are someone who vapes. It didn't need to be that explicit. It could have been something like vaping is cool. I am going to be cool if I do cool things. I vape. Therefore, I am a cool person. What is identity? It's your myth about yourself.

Get the same thing going for your group. If you make it believable and compelling enough, people will bend their identity to be part of the group myth. That's as great as it gets.

Keep teams small

Teams should be single digits (3, 4). This helps to maintain a sense of intimacy and accountability among team members. Everyone knows everyone, what they are good at, what they are doing, what they accomplished etc.

People attune to that as well subconsciously. In a small group, you are exposed. You can't hide. Your work also appears more significant in a smaller group than in a larger group where there is a greater chance of someone else presenting more significant (5).

In a large group, you are another person in the mob. Even when you do significant work, it is easy to get lost in the sheer volume of work that is being done.

Assign clear roles and responsibilities

Make sure everyone knows their specific role and what is expected of them (6, 7).

This clarity helps to reduce ambiguity and ensures that individuals feel accountable for their contributions. When people understand their responsibilities and there is enough on their plate, they are less likely to engage in social loafing. They will make sure it gets done. Especially because their name is on it and the team is dependent on them to do it.

Be careful to not make roles too restrictive. This has to align with team's goals and desires for growth as well. There has to be some room to go above and beyond. If you have overdone your roles and responsibilities to the point where you have created a team with a bunch of people in dead end jobs, how motivated do you think they will be to contribute?