In a short essay, discuss how social loafing can affect a team and how it can be combated

What will be an ideal response?

Answer: Social loafing is a very natural response to a special situation–when individuals join a group they tend to "take cover" from the group and rather than work hard to distinguish themselves, coast on the merits and accomplishments of the group. The result of social loafing is that while a team may be productive, its average output per team member is less than the output would be for those same team members individually. This effect of decreasing individual productivity gets more pronounced as group size increases: the larger the group, the less productive individual group members tend to be.

Since it is such a natural inclination, social loafing is hard to combat. To minimize social loafing, managers should focus on recognizing the contributions and accomplishments of group members both as individuals and as members of a group. For example, managers can urge group members to constantly evaluate themselves with respect to pulling their own weight and by repeatedly asking themselves: What did I do to help the group? Am I truly pulling my own weight?