Teaching About Social Loafing

Many classroom groups have difficulties with individuals who do not do their fair share of the workload. The experience of “social loafing” is widespread and often not well handled. The Accounting Team exercise was developed to examine this issue. Classroom groups are given the case of six team members of an accounting firm and asked to identify how to deal with a social loafer and another member who was not loafing, but had a performance problem. As an added twist, one group member has been given a slightly different case instructing him/her to be a social loafer in the group discussion. This is revealed in the debrief and discussed, followed by a short lecture/handout on “Addressing Social Loafing.” Finally, the group is asked to identify ways they can reduce social loafing in their own classroom group.