Social Loafing And Its Impact On Work Productivity

Abstract

In today's competitive world, organizations are taking drastic measures to increase productivity and enhance operational efficiency that would generate profitable outcomes, ultimately leading to a sustainable journey in growth and its performance among its competitors. One of the many key factors that are responsible for effective organizational performance is employee productivity. Every employee that works in an organization has his/her personal interests, which in turn collectively affects the productivity and performance of employees working together in a group. Creating groups among employees can create a positive and synergistic performance of activities and lead to better the productivity of outcomes, as there is employee support and motivation during the course of an activity performed, however, several observations indicated that employees participating in group activities give less efforts, which results in delaying the process by the group, ultimately affecting the productivity of the organization. Social loafing portrays a scenario where an individual employee tends to contribute very little effort while working with a group of employees in comparison with performing tasks independently. Organizations are taking initiatives and initiating measures to minimize social loafing scenarios among the employees by encouraging active participation and contributions that would allow employees to feel valued, create an environment that helps reduce work stress, organize a healthy competition among employees with rewards and appraisals, stressing on employee retention programs to ultimately boost the confidence among employees in the organization. In this research paper, we will look into the context of social loafing and its impact on organizational work productivity. This paper will also discuss the pros and cons of social loafing, and contribute to preventive measures on reducing social loafing among employees in an organization.