Investigating the Effective Factors on Social Loafing in Group Activities; Case of Study: Student’s Discussion Groups in Imam Sadiq University

Chitsazian, Alireza; Mortazavi, Saeed

doi:10.30497/smt.2010.140

Investigating the Effective Factors on Social Loafing in Group Activities; Case of Study: Student’s Discussion Groups in Imam Sadiq University

Authors

Alireza Chitsazian ¹

Saeed Mortazavi ²

¹ Organizational behavior Ph.D. student. Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

² Professor of Management, Mashhad Ferdowsi University (corresponding author)

10.30497/smt.2010.140

Abstract

Understanding the social loafing behavior in group activities is an important subject, because it refers to poorer performance of individuals who act as part of a group rather than alone. The present paper has examined the effective factors on social loafing in the framework of structural equations model. In this regard a questionnaire containing scales of factors were administrated to a sample of 140 students that were organized in discussion groups. The findings showed that only job characteristics had significant effect on the social loafing. So designing motivational jobs, creating job standards and job identification are the main indicators that help to eliminate or decrease the social loafing.

Keywords

social loafing

group activity

work characteristics

group characteristics

individual perception characteristics