Social Loafing.
Most of us have been tasked with working in group settings to complete assignments or projects, from elementary and high school to college classes, to work settings.
Sometimes groups work well together, and other times they are less effective. One of the reasons a group might not meet its objectives successfully is when social loafing occurs. Social loafing, according to the text (p. 314), is when there is a ‘reduction of individual effort when people work in groups rather than working alone’.
In this homework assignment, you will be asked to review the scenario below and then discuss five specific ways you could reduce social loafing as found in the scenario.
This will require you to review the section of the text that discusses ‘cures’ for social loafing (p. 315), particularly the following:
Increase identifiability
Minimize free riding
Set goals
Increase involvement
Increase identification with the group
Scenario:
You have been assigned to research Sigmund Freud’s life and work in your Introduction to Psychology course, submitting a 10-page paper on your findings. You have been placed into a group with five members including yourself, with whom you will work on the assignment. The paper is due in three weeks.
When you meet with your group for the first time, it seems that no one wants to take the lead in determining the best approach to your paper. One of your peers spends the entire group meeting checking his phone for texts from his girlfriend, while another group member is completely silent throughout the meeting. Two other group members seem willing to do the work, but do not appear to know where to start.
How would you change the tone of your group (keeping in mind the social loafing ‘cures’ noted above) so that you can be most effective? (And so that you do not end up doing the lion’s share of the work yourself!) How would you communicate these issues in order to bring about positive change?
Submit your assignment as an MS Word document in APA format. Your assignment should be a minimum of two pages in length, not including the required APA formatted title and reference page. You should use the text as your reference, as well as any other outside credible sources that might help you with this assignment. This is how the text should appear on your reference page:
Forsyth, Donelson (2018). Group Dynamics. 7th ed. Cengage Learning.
In-text citations for the text will look like this: (Forsyth, 2018).
