Carry The Group — The Failure of Team Work
When I was 14, I had a major group project worth 20% of my grade, the most a group project had ever been worth. Unfortunately, this…
When I was 14, I had a major group project worth 20% of my grade, the most a group project had ever been worth. Unfortunately, this weeks-long project was uninteresting and more difficult than expected. However, I was a student that cared about my grades, so as always, we do what we can to plough through.
The tough thing was that for this super important project, the group allocation I received was off-balanced. All my other teammates were known for their lackadaisical attitudes and their tendency to avoid or neglect their responsibilities when it came to group work. Hence, I knew there was a high chance I’d end up doing the majority of the work, and that I’d end up “carrying the team”.
In the end, to none of our surprise, that’s what I did. Despite having distributed tasks to each of my teammates based on their own strengths, and giving myself a heavier workload beforehand, I still ended up doing most of the work. Despite having reminded them to complete their tasks, they still left some of their responsibilities uncompleted or carelessly executed, all of which I had to complete at the last minute. Although they did help get some work done during class times, they still didn’t complete the tasks they were supposed to do themselves.
I was no amateur in the dynamics of being graded for group work. I knew that if I only did my part and the other parts of the project were left empty or badly done, my scores would still suffer. So like many who cared about their grades and have found themselves in similar situations, I ended up completing the group project myself so that I could still get a good grade. However, despite my efforts, and all the sleep and time I sacrificed to complete the project, I still didn’t get full marks because we lost “teamwork” marks. Yay. (I mean this in a comical way)
This article isn’t a rant, an expression of grudges or anything of that sort. I don’t hold anything against my teammates. Their behaviour wasn’t personal and they didn’t seem to be bad people, their behaviour was simply their general work ethic at that time. But there is one issue I was frustrated with, an important issue that remains relatively unaddressed about the education system. This issue is well-illustrated by what happened when I had spoken to my teacher earlier on about the group allocations after they were revealed.
I approached and explained to my teacher that for the biggest project of our year, it wasn’t fair for me to have my entire team be with people who were known to not “carry their weight”. Not for such an important project at least. I had “carried” group projects before; done all the work, but this was a complex, multi-step project lasting weeks! It wasn’t a fun project either, but the type of project you just have to do your best in because it made up a major part of your grade. For this project, I didn’t want to do a majority of the work all on my own.
After I spoke with my teacher, I remember feeling so frustrated at her response that I cried. Looking back now, years later, her response and my subsequent reflections on it are what inspired me to write this article.
“You just have to deal with it. In real life, you’ll meet and work with people like that. This experience will prepare you for the real world,”
She said something similar of the sort, this is definitely a paraphrase as I don’t remember her exact wording. However, I do remember what her words meant. The education system tries to prepare students for the “real world”, the working world, where there will be times we have to work with teammates who don’t do their own share. Dealing with this will help prepare us for the real world. Therefore we just have to.. deal with it.
This mindset creates a major problem for both students and workers that we fail to acknowledge. When you tell students that care about their grades that “that’s just the way it is” and that they “just have to deal with it”, the students who don’t do their work learn that it’s okay for them not to do anything. They are let off scot-free with little to no consequence for their behaviour, confident that the students who care about their grades will “carry the group” and do all the work. They are then likely to carry on their behaviour to the workplace, replicating their “work ethic” there and becoming the aforementioned real-life workers who slack off and don’t do their work. The cycle repeats itself.
This painful phenomenon, a situation that many of us have faced at some point in our lives, is called social loafing.
Social Loafing
Social loafing describes how people tend to put in less effort when working in a group compared to when working alone. It was first identified by Max Ringelmann, who when studying group performance discovered that both groups of people and animals did not meet their “potential” when working in a group, (“Potential” here refers to the maximum output of each individual when they worked alone. )
Ringelmann identified two causes of social loafing: coordination losses — a lack of unison in their efforts, and motivation losses where workers are less motivated due to each man “trusting his neighbour to furnish the desired effort”. In 1913, Ringelmann conducted an experiment where he aimed to maximise the productivity of agricultural workers. During the study, participants were asked to pull on a rope attached to a pressure gauge. Ringelmann found that as the number of people pulling increased, the further the group’s performance fell below their potential. For example, if two individuals could pull 100 units each, together they would only pull 186 units, not 200. He found that although groups outperformed individuals, they do not perform to the degree they could have if each individual was working at maximum capacity.
However, perhaps because the experiment he conducted was a rope-pulling experiment, Ringelmann believed that coordination losses were the main cause of social loafing, whereas motivation losses were only an occasional cause. Regardless, social loafing is also known as the Ringelmann effect!
Factors that influence social loafing
One factor that contributes to social loafing is group size. Studies show that as groups become smaller, solidarity increases and social loafing decreases. Small groups show better performance both individually and as a group. Although no studies have suggested what the optimal group size to minimise social loafing is, it has been highlighted that working with small groups is of benefit.
Another factor is the evaluation potential of the individual contributions of each member to the team project. This is because when group members believe task visibility is high, meaning that they believe others can tell how much each member contributed to the project, they become more motivated to contribute, reducing social loafing. Whereas, when team members are not held accountable for their individual contributions, they may feel less pressure to exert their full effort and choose to “hide in the crowd” instead. Perhaps this is why research also shows that when there is no individual evaluation structure enforced by the environment, loafing is more likely to occur.
If a team member believes that their contribution is insignificant or irrelevant to the larger project, they may also be less motivated to put in the effort, relying on other teammates to carry the load. Interestingly, it is also hypothesised that people may work harder in a group than they would have individually if they expect their teammates to perform poorly on an important task. This could suggest that when individuals believe their contribution is critical to the group’s success, they are more likely to put in the effort to avoid letting their team down. This can also mean that putting people of different levels of competencies and strength on a team may lead to social loafing as some team members may feel that their contribution is unnecessary or redundant, choosing to instead rely on the other “competent” group members to complete the work. This leads them to putting little to no effort into the group project.
However, in contrast to the above finding, some studies did find that if someone suspects the group is loafing, they are more likely to engage in social loafing as well. Some research showed that people who had low expectations of their teammates’ performance lowered their own efforts to maintain equity. Perceptions that the group is engaging in social loafing also lowers group satisfaction, efficiency and the performance of group work.
Negative impacts of social loafing
It lowers team output and the morale of the other team members, which may also reduce the effort they put into the work, ultimately resulting in reduced group performance.
Dissatisfaction and resentment could breed between the social loafers and the other team members. This can weaken the team spirit and create an unhealthy work environment.
The hard workers of the team who carry the workload of others may experience stress and burnout as they have to sacrifice more personal time, energy, rest and sleep to deliver results.
If social loafing becomes normalised within a team, high-performing achievers and hard workers may decide to leave the organisation, leading to potential issues for the respective organisation.
Solutions to social loafing
So, how do we address this issue? Teachers and managers can reduce social loafing by assigning separate and distinct individual tasks and responsibilities, making social loafing more difficult. They can also create smaller groups and establish individual accountability by evaluating group members individually, as increasing identifiability tends to lower social loafing.
Setting clear goals that are attainable and not too easy or too difficult can reduce social loafing. Highlighting how the goals and responsibilities of the individuals in the team, and showing why the part of the project they are responsible for holds importance could also be helpful. Another way teachers and managers can reduce social loafing is to highlight the achievements of individual members, making sure that each member feels appreciated and important. This kind of appreciation doesn’t just empower individuals, but also the team as a whole.
But what can students or employees do? Students and employees can reduce social loafing in their teams by building a sense of belonging, and making sure everyone feels important and included. For example, by asking for someone’s opinion if they’ve been quiet for a while or creating an open space where everyone’s ideas can be heard. One could also take the time to appreciate what their teammates are doing, pointing out special contributions their teammates make when they notice them. This will help further increase the sense of belonging one’s teammates feel as well as boost morale.
Another thing students or employees can do is ensure that they contribute their own fair share of work and effort. According to Better Up, one could also reduce social loafing in a team by not picking up their teammates’ slack if they don’t fulfil their responsibilities. This is because it will be easier for others to become social loafers if they expect you to take up their share of the work when they slack off. Eventually, this may develop into an unhealthy pattern for the team.
I can hear some people protesting internally. I myself hear the voice in my head asking “Don’t pick up our teammate’s slack? Then what do we do? Do we just not do anything, leave our project half-complete and fail?” This is a valid concern, especially if we are accountable for the entire team’s work. Better Up suggests that instead of doing nothing, there are other options that we could consider. We could have an open and honest conversation with the teammates who may not be pulling their weight, as some people may not realise their behaviour is causing an issue and may need a bit of a wake-up call. Alternatively, we could also bring our concerns to our teacher or manager. Better Up suggests if we feel uncomfortable pointing fingers, we could simply communicate our desire for better accountability within the team instead.
However, of course, some may argue that this is difficult to do when one is academically scored on teamwork. If you approach your teacher about your team’s lack of teamwork, you essentially communicate that your team is lacking in the category you are graded for. This is why I personally disagree with the concept of “teamwork marks”. We should not be penalised for someone else’s irresponsibilities, and when it comes to one’s academic future, not everyone’s going to be willing to blow off a project that’s worth an entire semester’s grade just because a few people aren’t willing to do their work. I’m not going to fault the one doing all the work because their other teammates aren’t helping out. I personally believe that teachers and managers should hold individuals who aren’t completing their work accountable, not harshly but gently. Find out why those individuals aren’t fulfilling their responsibilities, and guide them towards developing a stronger work ethic. Perhaps the person has been struggling with something for a long time, and it is because of this struggle that they’ve been engaging in social loafing. With proper help and guidance, these individuals could learn to become better team players.
Although sometimes you really can’t change another person’s behaviour, they may just be unwilling to change. You may also encounter a teacher who couldn’t be bothered to do anything about your unfortunate team pairing or loafing teammate. However, I personally believe that the tips above can be helpful in reducing and minimising social loafing, and make your life a lot better. While it may not completely eliminate social loafing, in certain situations, it could definitely help make everything a lot more balanced and fair.
It’s worth noting that the education system and workplaces could do more to address social loafing and the issues it creates. For the sake of all the students and workers who have to do more than their fair share of tasks, I hope that changes are made. I’ve heard too many stories of frustration and sleep deprivation from students and workers in academic institutions and workplaces alike. It’s clear that social loafing is an issue that needs to be addressed. Change has to start from somewhere, but on the bright side, identifying a problem is the first step to solving it. Action is next.
[Written by: Ruby. Edited by: Emily]