social loafing
Social Loafing and Motivating factors to Prevent Social Loafing
Many of life’s most important tasks can only be accomplished in groups and many group tasks are collective tasks that require the pooling of individual members’ input (Karau and Williams 681). The popularity of using work groups in organizations has grown considerably over the past decade. Team-based work groups are used in a assorted array of tasks and have become a critical feature in organizations. This increased use of groups has led to research attention on group productivity and group productivity loss (Tan and Tan 89). One aspect of the research has focused on social loafing. Social loafing is one form of productivity loss, where members do not work as hard as they do alone due to many reasons. Team members who refuse to carry their weight also challenge team motivation. If an organization could be more productive in work groups, would the organization take additional initiatives and time to find ways to motivate the organizational teams? Loss of motivation among individuals while working in groups leads to social loafing.
In order to understand what motivation is, this paper will define it. Work motivation is the process that initiates and maintains goal-directed performance. Motivation also leads to invest more or less cognitive effort to enhance both the quality and quantity of our work performance (Clark 21). Motivation energizes our thinking, fuels our enthusiasm and colors our positive and negative emotional reactions to work and life. Motivation generates the mental effort that drives us to apply our knowledge and skills, and applies them effectively to work tasks (Clark 21). Without motivation, even the most capable person will refuse to work hard. Motivation prevents or nudges us to convert intention into action and start doing something new, or to restart something we have done before. Motivation also controls our decisions to be persistent at a specific work goal in the face of
Many of life’s most important tasks can only be accomplished in groups and many group tasks are collective tasks that require the pooling of individual members’ input (Karau and Williams 681). The popularity of using work groups in organizations has grown considerably over the past decade. Team-based work groups are used in a assorted array of tasks and have become a critical feature in organizations. This increased use of groups has led to research attention on group productivity and group productivity loss (Tan and Tan 89). One aspect of the research has focused on social loafing. Social loafing is one form of productivity loss, where members do not work as hard as they do alone due to many reasons. Team members who refuse to carry their weight also challenge team motivation. If an organization could be more productive in work groups, would the organization take additional initiatives and time to find ways to motivate the organizational teams? Loss of motivation among individuals while working in groups leads to social loafing.
In order to understand what motivation is, this paper will define it. Work motivation is the process that initiates and maintains goal-directed performance. Motivation also leads to invest more or less cognitive effort to enhance both the quality and quantity of our work performance (Clark 21). Motivation energizes our thinking, fuels our enthusiasm and colors our positive and negative emotional reactions to work and life. Motivation generates the mental effort that drives us to apply our knowledge and skills, and applies them effectively to work tasks (Clark 21). Without motivation, even the most capable person will refuse to work hard. Motivation prevents or nudges us to convert intention into action and start doing something new, or to restart something we have done before. Motivation also controls our decisions to be persistent at a specific work goal in the face of
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