Strategies to Minimize Social Loafing

Social loafing occurs when a member of a work group does not participate or contribute meaningfully to the overall work of the group, but tries to take credit for the group’s output or product (Karau and Williams, 1993). This document contains draft language for several social loafing policies that may serve as a useful starting point for faculty interested in using group work in their face-to-face, blended, and online courses.

Description: This approach will include the following language in your course syllabus. You can add it and edit it as you see fit. The approach puts the onus for addressing social loafing issues on the learners in the group to address as they are happening, rather than waiting until the end of the semester to address them.

Default language (editable once it's placed in your syllabus):

Social loafing, or not participating in group work but taking credit for the work of the group, will not be tolerated and will result in a failing grade. However, students will not be provided the opportunity to "rate" the work of their group members; that's not how real-life leadership contexts work, and it's not how our class will work. If you have a group member who is not participating, follow these steps:

1. Confer with your other team members to confirm that your perception is accurate.
2. Articulate the concern to the group member who is not contributing in writing, copying the other team members and the instructors. We recommend blind copying yourself so you have a record of the interactions.
3. If the problem does not correct, escalate the issue directly to the instructors, copying *all* team members, including the person who has not contributed.

If you receive an email from a team member indicating that they think you are not contributing, and you disagree, you should respond to the entire team, copying the instructors, with a simple, clear articulation of what you contributed, and when, to the assignment. Providing evidence of the contribution, such as emails, or access to online documents, is helpful.

Description: This approach will include the following language in your course syllabus. You can add it and edit it as you see fit. The approach allows learners to evaluate their teammates' contributions at the end of the process, and suggests that those credibly viewed as non-contributors may be penalized in their grade.

Default language (editable once it's placed in your syllabus):

Social loafing, or not participating in group work but taking credit for the work of the group, will not be tolerated and may result in a failing grade. Team members will be provided a participation rubric at the end of group assignments in which they will be asked to rate their own level of participation and the participation of other team members in the group project.

Team members who are universally deemed not to have contributed sufficiently to the group work will be investigated by the instructors. If the evaluations indicating that a team member did not contribute are deemed credible by the instructor, the non-contributing team member may receive a lower grade, including failing the project.

Students are encouraged to address issues of social loafing early in the process of team work, and to keep the instructor apprised of issues before the final evaluation. If the instructor has not been made aware of potential problems before the summative participation evaluations, we may choose to disregard claims of non-participation.Everyone is expected to contribute to teamwork, and to engage in good faith in team-based projects.

Do you have an approach that is not represented here that you think would benefit your colleagues? Please contribute draft language to us by emailing Jude Higdon, jude.higdon-topaz@mnsu.edu.

Karau and Williams (1993). "Social Loafing: A Meta-Analytic Review and Theoretical Integration." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65(4), pp. 681 - 706.