Social Loafing and Recommendations on How to Reduce Its Occurrence within Groups Working on University Poster Presentations
Abstract
Social loafing occurs in groups and reduces group effectiveness and
productivity. Various literatures on social loafing reviewed suggest
that the group size, the identifiably of the participants, the
evaluation of their performance, people’s beliefs about their feelings
of uniqueness, envy, task difficulty, how people’s beliefs about their
feelings of uniqueness and expectations of co-workers are variables
that influence social loafing in a group. Based on the literatures, a
better understanding of social loafing was reached and some
recommendations on how to reduce its occurrence within a groups
working on University poster presentations were presented. However,
most of the existing literatures reviewed were from experiments on
proving variables that influence social loafing. Therefore, more
research to find out methods that effectively reduce or eliminate
social loafing needs to be done.
Social Loafing and Recommendations on How to Reduce Its Occurrence
within Groups Working on University Poster Presentations.
Groups are used to enhance productivity and to accomplish tasks that
require more than one individual. Committees, sports teams, government
task forces, study groups and symphonies are examples of groups that
require combined individual efforts. However, groups can also inhibit
individual productivity, where there is a reduction in effort by
individuals when they work in groups as compared to when they work by
themselves (Weiten, 2004).This is referred to as social loafing. Based
on...
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Furthermore, the importance of teamwork and collaboration to produce a superior work as a result of bolstering each other strengths was demonstrated in my third artifact, which is a group presentation. Although this project was my first english presentation and I had many feelings encountered, positive and negative ones, it showed me the influence that an orator can convey not only in a massive group but also inside a classroom. Good speakers plan not only the content of their speech but also their style of delivery. Despite the importance of having a clear and logical message to convey, how the message is presented is critical for bringing forth the desire concept (WOVEN 229).
The present study identified social loafing is less likely in collective conditions than coactive conditions although results were non-significant. This study supports the research of Worchel, Rothgerber & Day (2011) as participants who worked in newly formed groups worked harder in the group setting than alone. This was shown to occur due to a number of reasons including group goal setting and group level comparison between participants. Future studies should consider the influences of group tasks for group development. In conclusion, social loafing in collective groups are not significantly less than the coactive condition however results may vary in future experiments due to having new variables, different participants and a change methodology in future experiments.
Workplace meetings have become as common an occurrence in daily business activity as punching in on a time clock. "Done right, meetings are one of the most powerful communication tools." (Thibodeau, 2005, para. 1). As beneficial as productive meetings can be to business organizations, ineffective meetings can have an equally detrimental effect. Regardless of how boring or pointless they may seem, not even modern technology is a substitute for personal interfacing. Maxwell (2004) states the importance of in-person communication:
Small Group Communications class brought opportunities for me to get out of my comfort zone in order for me to meet new people and enjoy new experiences. It all started when our professor told us that we would be put in groups and those groups would remain together for the duration of the semester. Upon hearing this, I quickly scanned the room for familiar faces. I had...
As I was working with my teams it was really important for me to adopt some strategies and use them accurately. I have actually done that. Hill, C (2007) said, “A group is an association of two or more individuals who have a shared sense of identity and who interact with each other in structured ways on the basis of a common set of expectations about each other’s behavior”(Hill, C, 2007, International Business, McGraw Hill/Irwin, New York, p-94). Thus my first strategy was we will discuss each of us points and everyone will take them accordingly. I thought that we have make things easier that’s why I arranged a lot of meetings. Moreover I was always connected via internet to...
The people whom I surveyed were Alisa Bruzonsky and Steve Bruzonsky. Alisa talked about all of the study groups she participated in while she attended Arizona State University. Steve talked about social groups; he has a sound club he goes to once a month. There weren’t any similarities between these two groups, but the differences were in social groups they get together for fun and to talk about their interests. While, in study groups, they participate because they’re either forced to or they have to in order to pass their classes. In Alisa’s study group, each person collaborated in enforcing the groups’ norms. For instance, if a few people slack of, usually, one or two people of that group has to pick up their slack of finishing the assignment.
Upon receiving the brief for our Multimedia Studies assignment, Group 11 members arranged at a date for everyone to meet together to discuss the presentation project. We all had an interest in the film aspect of the media sector, so we decided our project would relate to the film industry. Being more specific about our project topic, we chose to base our presentation on film production. With six members, it was necessary to distribute the presentation work evenly, in doing so we allocated each person with a different area that concerns film production. These topics were completed separately and then sent to an allocated member, who compiled the work into a single presentation piece. We then presented our project to our fellow students.
When considering the options for collaboration activities it is important to have a central point of contact from which the participants can seek advice and guidance. When the instructor divides the class into smaller groups a specific person within each group should be elected to represent the group. This person would also be responsible for keeping the group on track for discussions. Keeping lines of communication open for each group member in regard to assigned tasks and making sure the group assignments are completed and submitted on time is essential. This central point of contact should optimally rotate around the group, depending on the length of the workshop and the number of participants in the group. In this way, everyone is given an opportunity to lead a discussion, collect assigned tasks, and further contribute to the deadlines set by the workshop facilitator....
We try our best working to meet our goal for the day as a team, which is make sure the residents are well taking care of. And if we see that our team members is not moving with the flow up we help. Another thing I experience with social loafing when working as a group is it improve of others than when they are working alone. I believe in team work, so I work more as a team compare to working 7by myself. While because I want everyone to be happy. Also, it shows you the skills of others in the
Before starting the university my working with others was sometimes effective and sometimes not very effective depending on the people I worked with, on the topic or area we had to work on. In sixth form I got on well with everybody in my class and working with them was not difficult. For example once me and two other students had to make a PowerPoint presentation on smoking. We worked together in planning what information will be included in the PowerPoint and who will write about what, what other materials we will need such as leaflets and who will get them. So before creating the PowerPoint presentation we planned everything together. Once the PowerPoint was created we then decided the number of slides each of us will read and talk about. So here I worked with others effectively and our PowerPoint presentation was successful.
Another way in which a group presence can affect our performance is social loafing. Social loafing is the exertion of less effort by a person working together with a group. Social loafing occurs when our individual performance cannot be evaluated separately from the group. Thus, group performance declines on easy tasks. Essentially individual group members
Have you ever been in a classroom that is very disorganised and you can even get one of them to talk or ask questions. Well to help with the disorganization teachers you could try group work. Almost 88% of teachers that tried group work for the disorganization of there classrooms were happy with their results. I agree that group work is important because helps students develop communication, to get new ideas, and with presenting.
Working together with other people for an assignment can be a challenging task in some cases but luckily, I worked well with my group members. The decisions we made were anonymous although we paced ourselves individually when it came to completing our separate parts of the essay. As a group I believe that we connected well on an interpersonal level as all four of us were able to make alterations to any problem together . Furthermore, we did not give each other a chance to get angry at one another as we knew that this would only cause conflict that would disrupt our flow as a group. There was an equal divide in the amount of work that we all did; our contributions were fair and no one was lacking behind. In addition, my group members were great at keeping each other informed if one of us were not able to attend a group meeting; emails were sent out informing us what we missed and ideas that were formulated. Everyone in my group worked according to deadlines and in synchronization with each other; we did not have to nag anyone to complete work or wait on a member to complete their task.
If group of members feel positive atmosphere, which is important point in group work, because positive atmosphere might enhance relationship between each member. Chiriac (2014:6) considers that if group of members helps or supports each other in group work, these students might get more active on the work. At same time, it may also increase work time and energy. However, group work also has downside about social function. Students might be influenced by others` negative mood, which includes insufficient communication and issues with one group member. Chiriac (2014:6) also claims that group atmosphere and group progress might be negative factor, which make a barrier for group work. When tutor distributes a new group, students will establish cooperation with new members and it also improve students` argumentative views. Indeed, this situation is same with outgoing students, while introverted students might free riding on the work. Burnett (2016:2) states that social loafing is easy to happen among the introverted students, even if these students are hardworking type. And also, these students might appear free-riding. According to Mellor (2016), some introverted students dislike group works` main reason is that group has not a better motivation, it may lead to personality clash. About free-riding, the quantity of group members should keep the lowest, and given to students