Social Loafing and Its Effects in Workplace

The concept of social loafing has been discussed and researched by the organizational researchers since 1913. Social loafing refers to the tendency of the individual to expend less effort when working in a group rather than individual.  Research evidence indicate the existence of the social loafing not only in physical task but also cognitive task. A large number of variables found to moderate social loafing.  Researchers identifies various variables such as Individual and group task, gender, technology, group size, group cohesiveness, task responsibility, intrinsic motivation all are associated with social loafing. The present paper reviews the research on social loafing.