Let us discuss the topic of social loafing (shirking). This is the tendency for individuals to expand less effort when working collectively than when working individually. Describe your experience with social loafing. How have you dealt with this concept in the past? After reading this chapter, how would you approach such an incident moving forward? How would you describe your personal approach to group work?
The members in the group invest more time and energy when working individually, while they are apt to take less effort for achieving the working goal when performing group tasks. This phenomenon is called social loafing (Morgan et al., 1993). When the group need to do some activities for reaching their goals, it is important to pay attention to social slack and adjust subconsciously.