...Ford Fairlane Dr. Professor Teacher MBA555 29 November 2014 Social Loafing: Laziness or Something Else? A frequent observation whenever groups of people gather together in team settings is that certain team members underperform relative to the performance of their teammates. The first reported observation of this was by Ringelmann in 1913 who demonstrated that men collectively pulling on a rope do not pull as hard as when pulling alone (Ringelmann). This phenomenon, termed Social Loafing (Latané, Williams, and Harkins 822), characterizes a multitude of settings and situations where the sum of output from a team is less than what the sum of work would be if that same work was performed by the same number on an individual basis. It is assumed that a team member designated as a social loafer is intrinsically a poor performer, has a general disposition to perform poorly, and that individual would manifest these character traits regardless of the goal or situation for which he is putting forth effort. Rather than a willful act of unwilling participation or laziness, it can be argued instead that Social Loafing is predominantly a result of multiple factors of team dynamics and work parameters which evoke a disincentive to put forth one’s best effort. Additionally, given the proper group framework and structure, Social Loafing is largely avoidable. Common belief and intuition holds that groups of people pooling their resources and effort together will yield results greater...
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...they are aware of social loafing in a self-managed team? Why or why not? Do other team members have an obligation to try to curtail the social loafing? Why or why? Managers do have that obligation to step in when there is a social loafing. It would not be fair to the others on the group or other employees. Why a manager should step in, is because once a group is assigned to a project and two or more that are social loafing will make the group fall back and the project will not be successful. I believe that other team members should not follow a social loafing; it will only bring the group down. Why, if the others follow a social loafer or loafing the project that was assigned to the group will have less information and the project would not be completed in a timely manner. Most projects given by a manager or from keep a social loafing busy “(1) make individual contributions to a group identifiable, (2) emphasize the valuable contributions of individual members, (3) keep the group size at an appropriate level” (Jones, 2009, pp. 553-554). Sexton (2008) says of course, everyone enjoys a reward and so the final advice for avoiding the dangers of social loafing is to create a system for measuring individual performance and rewarding those who excelled above and beyond the team goal. Why are some companies starting their own social networks? What are the advantages and disadvantages of social networks? The reason why some companies are starting their own social network is because...
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... * Too many layers of team hierarchy leading to overlapping roles and responsibility * Degrading quality of deliveries * Loss of productivity and margins The above has been used as a working example in the essay which aims to discuss what makes an effective delivery team and enables productive teamwork in an IT service company (described in the previous section). Team and Teamwork Team (Together Everyone Achieves More). A team can be said to be comprising of a group of people linked in a common purpose. Team for some is a four lettered word which at times is used too much or too less. The business definition of teamwork relates to the collective decision making processes that lead to goal oriented relationships formed between all participants. Generally, what is required from teams are the integration of work from the people involved, the generation of motives and solutions to the problem concentrated on, high involvement, team leadership and continuous encouragement. In an interview with J. Richard Hackman by Daine Coutu published in Harvard Business Review, May 2009, the discussion reveals that teams and teamwork may not always work. Problems with co-ordination, keeping motivation going, social loafing, competing with other teams erode the benefit of collaboration that team and team working bring. Types of Teams Although there are various types of team, teams can be broadly classified into the following: A) Self-managed teams B) Problem solving...
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...“Individuals in Group”, author Carol Tavris demonstrated a psychological theory called “diffusion of responsibility” or “social loafing”. They are the social phenomenon whereby an individual is less likely to take action and responsibility when other peoples are present. In another word, people in a group become lazier and will make less effort compare to the individuals who work alone. Such theory not only appeared in our everyday life, but also can be seen in literature like Orwell’s 1984, specifically, the scene called the Two Minutes Hate. The characters there behave both similar and different to the behaviors as Tavris described. Tavris states in the passage, “Something happens to individuals when they are in a group. They think and act differently than they would on their own”shows the main idea throughout the article. Individuals who are alone will act differently and will take actions sooner than those in a group will. An example Tavris provided in the...
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...Sympathetic & Parasympathetic Nervous Systems, Fight-or-Flight Response, James-Lange Theory of Emotion, Basic Emotions 2. What four components make up what we think of as emotion? 3. What are some types of physiological measures psychologists use to measure emotion? 4. What is the purpose of the autonomic nervous system? 5. What roles do the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems play? When is each system most active? What physiological changes occur? 6. What is the fight-or-flight response? When does it occur and what types of reactions does it typically cause in people? 7. Are polygraphs good at detecting lies? What do polygraphs actually measure? 8. According to the James-Lange theory of emotions does feeling an emotion cause our body to physically react, or do physical reactions in the body cause us to feel emotions? What evidence do we have that this is the case? 9. What are basic emotions? What do psychologists look for when they try to identify basic emotions? 10. How do we know facial expressions for basic emotions are not learned through experience? PERSONALITY 11. Important Concepts: Personality, Unconscious, Id, Ego & Superego, Defense Mechanisms, Repression, Denial, Rationalization, Projection, Personality Traits, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, Big Five 12. What is the difference between a personality trait and a state? 13. Did Freud view the conscious or unconscious mind as having a larger impact on people’s behavior...
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...key to the overall organizational effectiveness. This being said even well designed teams can fall prey to the pitfalls and conflict that are present any time you bring people together and our Target Logistics Team is not immune from these problems. We will look at some of these potential problems and suggest solutions that can be employed to reduce their negative impact. Problems that are particular to the Logistics Team are Social Loafing and Free Riding, Groupthink, and Conflict. Social Loafing People in groups often do not work as hard as they do when alone, this is known as social loafing. This can have a negative effect on productivity where the team performance may increase with the size of the team, but the rate of increase in performance is negatively accelerated. Because of the size of our team we are likely to experience the Social Loafing Effect (Figure 1), which is that the greater number of people who work on a group task, the smaller the contribution any one member of the group will make. Within our Logistics Team social loafing is often experienced on the assembly line during the daily unload. It always starts out with everyone contributing relatively evenly, but usually another 2 or 3 guys are splintered on the schedule to come in half an hour after everyone else. Once they join the assembly line the pace often still stays the same. (with more people, it should have been a given that it would have increased) Each Person on the line is talking more, and...
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...Case Study-Week 3 There are five stages to group development. Many groups are unable to make it to the final stage and find it uncomfortable to work within the group they are in. Also they find it almost impossible to finish the tasks that are expected of them. The five stages are as follows: I. Forming stage- this is the initial stage. The primary concern is the entry of the members of the group. Multiple questions are asked as the members within the group begin to identify with other members and the group itself. The main purpose in this stage is getting to know each other, determining the tasks at hand, defining the group rules, and considering the acceptable behavior within the group. II. Storming stage- The is a period of high emotion and tension within the group and among the members. Hostility and fighting between members may occur and the group may experience changes. Coalitions and Cliques may form within the groups. Outside demands may create tension and pressure. Expectations tend to be clarified and the attention gradually shifts to obstacles standing in the way of the group goals. Group members start to understand one another and efforts are made to accomplish group goals and satisfy individual needs. III. Norming stage- this is the initial integration of the group. The point where the group really begins to come together as a unit. There is a new sense of harmony after the storming stage and members try and maintain a positive balance...
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...since the beginning of time. Influence can be seen in every aspect of daily life, such as in economic, social, and political behaviours. Social influence is believed to take up a key position in diffusion of information and formation of opinions. Prior studies (Grabisch, 2010 & Rusinowshar, 2011) carried out studies to learn how individuals change their answers and opinions according to the situation or based on another individuals answer. The results showed that individuals collect opinions of others before giving the final answer. An answer that is originally a no, could turn into a yes (I1). There has been sufficient studies on social influence...
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...(2015) suggests that the impact of counterproductive behavior in organizations are negative. The counterproductive behaviors discussed in the article include poor attendance, employee theft, interpersonal problems, and cyber loafing. Throughout this paper, the counterproductive behaviors analyzed in the article will be related to the topics discussed from the required course text, Organizational Behavior: Improving Performance and Commitment in the Workplace, by Jason Colquitt, Jeffery Lepine, and Michael Wesson. Current Organizational Behavior Article 1 Counterproductive Behavior and its Effects in the Workplace Article Review The article written by Stan Mack, The Impact of Counterproductive Behavior in Organizations (TICBO), is an article discussing various counterproductive behaviors in organizations. He discusses behaviors from poor attitudes and attendance, to employee theft, interpersonal problems, and cyber loafing. Mack recognizes each of these negative behaviors, how they cannot be completely eliminated, but can be lessened by handling them appropriately. Work and project quality may decrease due to poor employee attendance, as well as managers not being as effective due to having to address poor absenteeism (TICBO, 2015). Employers should also make it a point to have proper security and security protocols to decrease the risks of damages of employee theft (TICBO). When it comes to interpersonal problems, favoritism, backstabbing, consistent complaining, and rumor spreading...
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...A Two Day Adventure Therapy Programme for Disadvantaged Youth For the purpose of this assignment I have chosen to work with disadvantaged or disaffected youth from a programme in Dublin called Bradog Regional Youth Service. There are 10 participants aged between 13-18 years of age of mixed gender and ethnic backgrounds. Participants will take part in an intense two day adventure programme, focusing on developing these individuals with skills that will aid there development. The programme will be facilitated by outdoor adventure instructors and psychologists. The programme will consist of two sessions each day. Each session will involve and activity which will indirectly address development issues for adolescents. Through facilitation methods commonly used in adventure therapy the sessions will be reviewed and the relevant learning shall be drawn from the experience. All food and equipment will be provided by the centre. I have first-hand knowledge and experience with working with disadvantaged youth in an outdoor education centre in Ireland and will be drawing on my own experience when designing this programme. I will first outline the issues that arise that are general to the entire programme. Then I will move on to cover the specific details of the programme. Possible problems with the group There are many problems that can arise when people are put into groups. There may be people that are just focused on themselves and find it hard to relate to others, or even...
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...The Forgotten Group Member Group Development Working in a group to achieve a high quality group project can be one of people’s most difficult school experiences. Working in a group is tough because there is often someone who does not pull their own weight. “There are five stages to group development, adjourning, forming, storming, performing, and norming” (John & Wiley pg 166). Christine’s group from the Case Study the Forgotten Group Member is in between the Storming and Norming Stages. The Storming Stage “is dealing with tensions and defining group tasks,” while the Norming Stage is dealing with high emotionality and tension among the group members” (John & Wiley pg. 166). Christine and her group could have had better success in creating a solid group paper if she would have focused more on the forming stage at the beginning of their relationship. The forming stage happens “in the initial entry into the group,” during this stage individuals ask a number of questions as they begin to identify with other group members and with the team itself” (John & Wiley pg 166). Group member Mike was the black sheep of the group. He did not complete his assigned tasks and missed group meetings because of work and personal issues. Christine became frusterated because of his absences and his incomplete work. In the beginning meetings of the group, Christine and other groups members could have asked the questions during the forming stage like “What are the potential barriers...
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...discussing the problems, the paper considers issues such as ‘‘free riding’’ and the ‘‘sucker effect’’, issues associated with ethnic mix in groups, and the social dilemma problem—in which students face conflicting demands between altruism and self-interest. The paper then outlines several models of effective groupwork and makes suggestions for implementing groupwork tasks. The paper also looks at the key assessment tasks which are commonly employed—namely, additive, conjunctive, disjunctive and discretionary tasks—and assesses which are most suited to groupwork. The paper considers the related issues of task complexity, recognition for effort, and strategies for minimising issues concerning group size. The paper also briefly considers strategies for implementing incentives for groupwork members, and outlines the issue of penalties for unproductive group members. The paper concludes by providing recommendations for how to maximise the advantages of groupwork while trying to minimise the disadvantages. Keywords Groupwork Á Assessment Á Free-riding Á Sucker effect Introduction: the advantages of groupwork The importance of groupwork as a form of assessment has long been recognised among educators. Its use has been justified on the following five principal grounds. While many of these claims can be challenged, this paper does not wish to do that, preferring instead to take the advantages of...
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...in what, and how, work is done, the job description has emerged as a powerful tool for avoiding chaos” (Grant, p.40, 1997). As we are restructuring our firm and developing new strategic and operational plans, several new positions are needed, the combination of these jobs will implement our goals. The main five positions that will be created are: first level service manager, catering service director, customer service relations advisor, marketing manager, and general administrative assistant. “The job description holds great potential for guiding the execution of key human resource management functions” (Grant, p. 36, 1997). To eliminate any confusion the below mentioned job descriptions were written with “the focus on what the employee does, not on how--and not on how accomplishment will be measured” (Grant, 1997). 1) First level service manager- Responsibilities includes the planning and directing all cashiers, conducts team meetings with the catering service director, customer service relations advisor and marketing advisor. Reports to upper level service manager also conducts annual appraisals and feedback to team members. 2) Catering service director– Plans and overseas all catered orders both in...
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...The reflection of my experiences of The Everest group simulation z3238040 Seung Kon Back ● The Executive Summary The team 1 was organised to perform two Everest simulations and its members were Seungkon, Florence, Yajia, Michael, Manas and Rebecca. This report is a record of experiences during the simulations and also aims to describe the team’s experiences and critically analyse the results and communication structures. It was found that the main factor of the team’s failure is attributable to poor performance of a physician and there were some communicative conflicts. A disappointing performance is linked with the concepts of cognitive dissonance, task cohesiveness and social loafing. It also was confirmed that the problem of communication is associated with several factors such as the linguistic barrier, stereotyping, different decision-making styles, the internet-network communication and different cultures. Table of Contents ● The executive summary p2 ● Introduction p4 ● Everest team experience p4-6 ● Analysis of team’s result p7-9 ● Analysis of team’s communication structures and experiencep9-11 ● Conclusion p12 ● Bibliographyp13-14 ● Appendicesp15-19 ● Introduction The members of team 1 (Seungkon, Florence, Yajia, Michael, Manas and Rebecca) were supposed to do Everest simulation at week 5 and 8. Before the first simulation, as I had not had any experiences with other members and also I had no experiences regarding Everest simulation, there was a lack of knowledge...
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...Chapter Seven-Social Behaviour and Organizational Processes What is a Group? * Group- two or more people interacting interdependently to achieve a common goal * Interacting * suggest who is in and who isn’t in the group * need not to meet face to face or verbal communication ie. Telecommute * interdependence * group members rely on each other to accomplish goals all groups have 1 or more goals * Importance of group membership * Group tremendous influence on us * social mechanism by which we acquire many beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviours * provide a context in which we are able to exert influence on others * Formal work groups-group that organizations establish to facilitate the achievement of organizational goals * Intentionally designed to channel individual effort in an appropriate direction * Most common formal groups: a manager and employees who report to manager ie. Production manager, supervisor (who report to manager) * Hierarchy of most organizations is a series of formal interlocked work groups * Task forces-temporary groups that meet to achieve particular goals or to solve particular problems ie suggesting productivity improvements * Committees- permanent groups that handle recurrent assignments outside the usual work group structures * Informal groups- groups that emerge naturally in response to the common interests of organizational members ...
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