Search Results (10)

This study explored the effects of trust in a supervisor (TIS) on social loafing behaviors of employees. In addition, this study examined the mediating effect of perceived organizational support (POS) on the relationship between trust in a supervisor and employees’ social loafing behaviors. It also examined the moderating effects of perceived organizational politics (POP) on the relationship between TIS and POS, TIS and social loafing behaviors, and POS and social loafing behaviors. Data were collected from local government employees in Korea, and the final sample was 260. Our results indicate that trust in a supervisor has indirect negative effects on social loafing behaviors mediated by POS. In addition, it was found that the effects of TIS on POS and POS on social loafing behaviors were moderated by POP. The results of this study contribute to the extant literature on social loafing behaviors. Moreover, the findings imply that political behaviors in organizations might induce social loafing behaviors. Full article

In light of the aging population and the rapid growth of people with mental and physical disabilities, the demand for long-term care has increased significantly. In order to meet the massive need for long-term care, the government of the Republic of China has accelerated the training of manpower for care services, and the number of qualified staff and institutions in the long-term care industry has increased accordingly. Although the need for long-term care employees has increased, they face problems such as low pay, low levels of decent work feelings, and high work pressure. Moreover, the increase in employee numbers in the organization does not improve the overall efficiency of long-term care workers. Instead, it has a social loafing effect. Not only in Taiwan, but other countries worldwide, such as Japan, Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the United Arab Emirates, are experiencing a staff shortage, a lack of training, and social loafing in long-term care institutions due to the aging of their populations. Therefore, in this study, workplace friendship as the independent variable, organizational commitment and psychological safety as the mediating variables, and service climate as the moderating variable were used to investigate the effects of social loafing on the employees of long-term care institutions in Taiwan. The results showed that workplace friendship between employees positively and significantly affects organizational commitment and psychological safety. Moreover, organizational commitment and psychological safety will negatively and significantly affect their social loafing. Second, organizational commitment and psychological safety have mediating effects between workplace friendship and social loafing. Furthermore, the service climate of employees in long-term care institutions will positively moderate the impact of their workplace friendship on psychological safety. The results will be provided to those in charge of the long-term care service industry, training institutions, long-term care business-related organizations, and government agencies, as well as for reference in subsequent studies. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to widespread changes in the way that people work, including an increase in remote work and changes in group dynamics. Social loafing, the phenomenon of reduced individual effort in group settings, has been widely studied in the literature. However, less is known about the potential impacts of social loafing on mental health and turnover intention in this relationship. In this study, we hypothesized that social loafing would be related to turnover intention and that mental health would mediate this relationship. To test these hypotheses, we conducted a cross-sectional survey of 700 full-time tourism employees in Egypt. The obtained data were analyzed by Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Our results indicated that social loafing was significantly related to turnover intention and negative mental health consequences significantly mediated this relationship. The results showed that stress (as a dimension of mental health) experienced by employees may act as a mediator between social loafing and turnover intention. On the other hand, depression and anxiety were not observed to have a similar mediating effect. This implies that stress could play a vital role in the decision-making process of employees who are contemplating leaving their job due to social loafing. These findings suggest that interventions aimed at reducing social loafing may have the added benefit of improving mental health and decreasing turnover intention in the workplace. Full article

This study examines the influences of procedural justice on the turnover intention and social loafing behavior among employees in the hotel industry. Despite a growing body of literature regarding the relationship between organizational justice, turnover intention and social loafing, there is limited published research on the influence of procedural justice on social loafing behavior among hotel employees with the mediating effect of turnover intention. For this purpose, a questionnaire was self-administered to employees working at different hotels in Saudi Arabia. AMOS software was employed for structural equation modeling (SEM) data analysis. The results show that procedural justice significantly and negatively influences social loafing behavior. Furthermore, procedural justice significantly and negatively influences turnover intention, whereas the turnover intention significantly and positively influences social loafing behavior. Turnover intention partially mediates the link between procedural justice and social loafing. The study outcomes confirm that procedural justice is important for any organization; nevertheless, it is not enough to decrease social loafing behavior among hotel employees, especially when turnover intention exists. The results have implications for hotel practitioners and scholars in relation to reducing turnover intentions and social loafing behavior among employees. Full article

Group-based assessments have been recognized as one of the ways of developing work-ready attributes in project management graduates. This paper is aimed at exploring the best practices for improving the administration process of group-based assessments to make it fit for purpose. The study adopted a systematic literature review and 22 semi-structured interviews with project management academics in higher education. The study found that teams should be small in size and formed by the faculty. Tasks should be based on a real-world context and be sufficiently challenging for students. The group should create a team charter to establish expectations and ground rules for group members. Group assessments should include team member peer evaluations and oral presentations to curb social loafing. Academics should be actively involved in giving regular feedback, training students about teamwork, and communicating their expectations to students. The study findings are useful to inform project management academics about the design and administration characteristics that need to be considered to achieve the ultimate purpose of group-based assessments in polishing the job-readiness attributes of project management graduates. Full article

The COVID-19 pandemic has severe psychological and psychosocial impacts on hotel workers. This study examines the causal direct impact of both job insecurity and distributive injustice, which were common in hotels post COVID-19, on social loafing behavior among hotel workers, and the indirect impact through turnover intention. Data were collected from 850 hotels workers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Using results obtained through structural equation modeling (SEM), the spread of both job insecurity and distributive injustice positively and significantly influences turnover intention among hotel workers post the COVID-19 pandemic. The results also found that turnover intention fully mediates the influence of both distributive injustices on social loafing behavior. On the other side, it partially mediates job insecurity on social loafing behavior among hotel workers. Implications for scholars and practitioners as well as limitations of current research are discussed. Full article

To sustain the effort of work team members as a collaborative resource over time, organizations need to avoid the social loafing of employees. Recognizing the importance of this relationship, we investigated both individual (i.e., exchange ideology) and situational factors (i.e., task visibility and professional respect) that influence employees’ attitudes toward social exchange and team collaboration and thus their social loafing. Using survey responses of 223 employee–supervisor dyads in South Korean firms, hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated that employees with a low exchange ideology were unlikely to engage in social loafing. In addition, exchange ideology interacted with both task visibility and professional respect to influence social loafing. Specifically, task visibility was negatively associated with social loafing, and this effect was stronger when employees were low, rather than high, in exchange ideology. Moreover, professional respect was negatively associated with social loafing, and this effect was stronger among those low in exchange ideology. Thus, a low level of exchange ideology can reduce social loafing and can also enhance the potential for task visibility and professional respect to strengthen effort levels. Accordingly, this study suggested that individual characteristics, especially exchange ideology, are important in reducing social loafing and clearly stated what managerial guidelines can be implemented to practically reduce social loafing. Full article

Social loafing, the act of withholding effort in teams, has been identified as an important problem in virtual teams. A lack of social control and the inability to observe or trust that others are fulfilling their commitments are often cited as major causes of social loafing in virtual teams where there is geographic dispersion and a reliance on electronic communications. Yet, more research is needed to better understand such claims. The goal of this study was to examine the impact of control and trust on social loafing in virtual teams. To accomplish this, we proposed and empirically tested a multi-level research model that explains the relationships among team controls, trust, social loafing, and team performance. We tested the model with 272 information technology employees in 39 virtual teams. Results indicate that control and trust reduce social loafing separately and also jointly. Full article

In light of the European refugee situation, we investigate how information about others’ support influences individuals’ willingness to help. When individuals see information about other people supporting refugees, they may either be influenced by a descriptive norm, and act accordingly. Alternatively, they may perceive that others are already doing the job, and thus engage in social loafing. In an experiment (N = 132), we tested these competing predictions. Specifically, participants were exposed to a map of Germany that either indicated many or few helping initiatives across the country. In a control group, no map was shown. Subsequently, participants were asked about their willingness to help. While there was no effect between the two map conditions, results revealed that participants reported lower willingness to help in both map conditions, compared with the control group. Thus, providing information about helping projects results in social loafing, jeopardizing widespread communication strategies to increase solidarity. Full article

On the basis of the analyses of past cases, we demonstrate how cognitive biases are ubiquitous in the process of incidents, crashes, collisions or disasters, as well as how they distort decision making and lead to undesirable outcomes. Five case studies were considered: a fire outbreak during cooking using an induction heating (IH) cooker, the KLM Flight 4805 crash, the Challenger space shuttle disaster, the collision between the Japanese Aegis-equipped destroyer “Atago” and a fishing boat and the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant meltdown. We demonstrate that heuristic-based biases, such as confirmation bias, groupthink and social loafing, overconfidence-based biases, such as the illusion of plan and control, and optimistic bias; framing biases majorly contributed to distorted decision making and eventually became the main cause of the incident, crash, collision or disaster. Therefore, we concluded that, in addition to human factors or ergonomics approaches, recognition and elimination of cognitive biases is indispensable for preventing incidents, crashes, collisions or disasters from occurring. Full article