With reference to either social loafing or groupthink, discuss how groups in the workplace can be source of negative synergy.

Identify and discuss two ways in which such potential disadvantages of group working might be addressed.
Social Loafing can be defined as the tendency of an individual in a group activity to make less of an effort compared to the effort given in individual work; as more members are in a group individuals tend to contribute less as they are not solely responsible for the outcome of the work. Throughout this essay I will attempt to discuss the causes and effects of negative synergy and how these causes can be resolved. Firstly, synergy can be described as the creation of a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts, so therefore negative synergy is when two or more individuals come together and the sum is actually lower producing Social Loafing. A main cause of negative synergy due to Social Loafing is an individuals expectations of the other members of a group. Whether it is consciously or unconsciously individuals will expect others to make less of an effort, and as a result of this, individuals begin to believe if others arent working hard, then neither should I it is not fair I do more work for them to also reap the rewards. An example of this may be in a school presentation project; if one member isnt giving much input this may cause others to become irritated that they will also gain the same grade as the person doing all of the work regardless of their input and as a result the presentation will either not be done or rushed at last minute if a solution is found. This effect of people working less hard as a result of perceiving others as doing the same is called the Sucker Effect. The solution to this problem is simply reducing this negative perception of the others in the group. This can be done by increasing communication between its members. By setting tasks for each member to do and breaking down a project into different tasks and delegating work to each member will allow the progress and input of each member to be easily analysed. This can reduce the sucker effect as everybody knows their roles and by communicating on the progress of each task the negative perceptions can be decreased. A second cause of negative synergy is Anonymity; this is where the larger a group becomes the more anonymous an individual feels within the group. When working in large groups blame and glory

are both evenly spread, no one individual will stand out from the crowd, if your group receives
100% in a project you all will, if you receive 0% you all will no matter how much individual effort you have inputted. If an individual feels anonymous within a group they may feel left out, to intimidated to speak up or may even attempt to do as much of the work themselves in order to gain a good mark for the group without anybody elses input. A solution to this problem could be Group Importance increase the relationships and bonds within the group in order to reduce the anonymity of individuals. A study was carried out by Worchel S which included two groups and their goal was to build as many paper chains as they could in a specific time period. Group A were given name tags, a sense of competition and matching coats, whilst group B were given none of these. This resulted in Group A producing five more paper chains that Group B, showing that the stronger relationship and sense of forming an actual team increased output and effort.

In addition, having No standards set in the group will give them no clear ideal to aim for. If there is no expectation set the group may simply do a basic piece of work rather than the complex high standard piece they should be creating. For example, if a piece of work in a classroom will not be assessed and is simply for the benefit of the groups own personal learning they may not work as hard in comparison to a piece of assessed work that counts towards a final grade as they know there will be a negative outcome if they fail. A solution could be increasing the Task Importance. Studies have shown that when people think the task is more important they do less loafing and the groups individuals will speak up and make themselves heard if they believe the relevance of a task is high. An example of increasing the task importance could be creating a competitive environment; i.e. tell the groups they are working against each other for a reward competition builds importance. For example, telling a classroom split into groups and explaining that the winning group in the project will receive no homework the next week will cause the group to be motivated into working harder and being rewarded. In conclusion, It is important to note that not all group work will result in loafing, if the task is challenging or meaningful people will tend to work harder to accomplish the goal.

Diagram illustrating how the number of people in a group actually decreasing the performance of an individual.