Question: Curtailing Social Loafing
Objective: Your objective is to gain experience in developing a strategy to reduce social loafing in an ongoing group.
Procedure: Assume the role of a manager of a home improvements/building supply store that sells a wide range of products-including lumber, plumbing fixtures, windows, and paint-to both commercial accounts and individual customers. The store is staffed by three types of employees who work in three different groups:
(1) a group of six cashiers who check out purchases made by individuals on site;
(2) a group of five floor employees who help customers locate items they need, stock merchandise, and reshelve returns; and
(3) a group of four employees who handle commercial accounts.
All the employees are paid on an hourly basis. The cashiers and floor employees earn the minimum wage; the commercial account employees earn one and a half times the minimum wage. You are pleased with the performance of the cashiers and the commercial account employees. The floor employees, however, seem to be putting forth less effort than they should. On several occasions, customers have complained about not being able to find items, and you personally have located the items for them even though there were ample floor employees on duty. The floor employees do not seem busy, and their workloads have not increased recently, yet they have a backlog of work to be done, including stocking of new merchandise and reshelving. Despite their backlog, you often see members of this group chatting with each other, taking cigarette breaks outside the back of the store, and making personal telephone calls-all outside their regularly scheduled breaks.
1. Individually develop a plan of action to reduce social loafing in the group of floor employees.
2. The class divides into groups of three to five people, and each group appoints one member as spokesperson to present the group's action plans to the whole class.
3. Group members take turns describing their action plans for reducing social loafing among the floor employees.
4. After discussing the pros and cons of each different approach, the group develops a plan of action to reduce social loafing among the floor employees.
When your group has completed these activities, the spokesperson will present the group's action plan to the whole class.