Social Loafing

Regarding team cohesion, can you explain and analyse the phenomenon of social loafing? Using appropriate examples to support your findings, also, provide a solution to reduce the effect that social loafing may have on a team’s performance.

 

In this post I will be explaining and analysing the phenomenon of social loafing. Also I will be trying to provide solutions to reduce the effects social loafing has on a team’s performance.

Social loafing is when “team players loose the motivation to work as hard because their efforts are not clear and a good performance is not wholly dependent on their performance,” Teach PE, 2012.

Social loafing often occurs when a sports coach doesn’t highlight the contribution made by an individual during a game. In Football a Goalkeeper might know that his match performance isn’t going to be reviewed after the game or in the next training session so might not put as much effort in to save some shots, however if the Goalkeeper knows that his performance will be review after the game, and that bad performances could be identified, then he might put more effort in to help the team concede as few goals as possible. Having the possibility of being reviewed and identified has increased the individual’s group contribution therefore reducing social loafing. Although social loafing happens within a group it is less likely to happen if you know the people in the group well. It is more likely to happen in a group of strangers in the stages of group development. Rune Hoigaard et al say that “Public evaluation or identifiability… has been highlighted as a key situational factor that inhibits social loafing.”  

There are a number of reasons for social loafing but eight have received the most attention they are: “1. the individual’s output cannot be independently evaluated, 2. the task is perceived to be low meaningfulness, 3. the individual’s personal involvement in the task is low, 4. A comparison against group standards is not possible, 5. The individuals contributing to the collective effort are strangers, 6. The individual’s teammates or co-workers are seen as high in ability, 7. The individual perceives that his contribution to the outcome is redundant, 8. The individual is competing against what she believes to be a weaker opponent,” Weinberg and Gould, (2011, p174). This suggests that within a team eight main factors could occur that could lead to social loafing within the team.      

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk3ubtaUKLY this YouTube video by stringcheese001 explains theories of social loafing. My only negative about this video is that it doesn’t give examples in a sporting context and only in a working environment. However you can take how they have explained it in a working environment and try and change it to a sporting context then you get to understand social loafing more.

 

How do we reduce the effects of social loafing?

One way that we could reduce the effects of social loafing is, as a coach; increase the identifiability of individual performances. We can do this “including practices as well as games in you evaluation, because many players don’t get a lot of actual game time,” Weinberg and Gould, (2011, p175).

Weinberg and Gould (2011) also write that “Weiss and Stuntz (2004) and Smith (2007) offer suggestions for enhancing peer relationships: Generate cooperative goals in the sport setting, encourage young athletes to engage in their own problem solving rather than expecting adults to solve problems for them, enable athletes to engage in shared decision making, design sport settings for small group activities and maximum participation and select peer leaders on criteria other that athletic ability (e.g. leadership skills).” 

To view image visit: http://www.csupomona.edu/~wcweber/301/301slide/ch14301/sld021.htm

These suggest and show that if coaches incorporate any of these five suggestions in to his/hers team training sessions then social loafing amongst the group of players are unlikely to effect the team’s performance due to the fact that everyone will feel involved within the team. A coach should also analyze the dynamics and strategies involved in their sport so they can understand when social loafing may occur. Also talk to players about loafing individual, when talking they might say a reason why they aren’t as motivated and then you can both work together to motivated the individual again, this could be something like changing the players position in the team to give him/her a new challenge and improve their motivation, when setting a new position for players it will help “players to gain an appreciation of their teammates and of how their own performance affects others on the team,” Weinberg and Gould (2011, p176).       

To conclude, in this post I have discussed social loafing and the major factors that are the reason for social loafing within a team. I have also discussed different ideas on ways a coach can reduce the effects of social loafing.

References

Rune Hoigaard et al, (2006) International Journal of Applied Sports Science, The Effects of Team Cohesion on Social Loafing in Relay Teams, [Online], Vol.18, No.1, 60 Available from: https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:MUyZcmeCLKUJ:www.sports.re.kr/common/download.jsp%3FfilePath%3Dmagazine/1904920091228164154.pdf%26fileName%3D19..+&hl=en&gl=uk&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESgwQ7PzPBJ_UULM7pY7OhMHpAnX0vJuczi4iaOZopDpjHLhQ38DMj9CEHxcOla_nAZQiZA_qVF9n37QuYzASV_CgwvcEUBYJhvPoxj4QKIMjC0X_X9gyYUDtXnz9xc4z5ll5B4H&sig=AHIEtbRHdc_oOhH_fDGoMRwlkbv0t_tWGw, [Accessed 14^th January 2013] 

Teach PE, (2012) Groups and Teams, [Online] Available from: http://www.teachpe.com/sports_psychology/groups_teams.php, [Accessed 14^th January 2013].

Weinberg and Gould (2011), Foundations of Sport and Exercise Psychology, (E.d. 5), United States of America, Human Kinetics.