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Candidate:
Nelson R. Eikenhout
Degree
of: Doctor of Philosophy
Department: Psychology
Title: The Effects of Task Structure and Group Target Monetary Incentives on Social Loafing
Date: Thursday, July 8, 2004 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m.
3713 Wood Hall
Committee:
Dr. Bradley Huitema, Chair
Dr. Alyce Dickinson
Dr. John Austin
Dr. Joseph McKean
Abstract:
Social loafing refers to the decrease in individual performance output that occurs when individuals perform a task in groups in which the output is pooled. Pooled output refers to the performance of all group members added together to get a total group output. Therefore, because all group members contribute to a single group outcome, individual performance output is obscured. This study examined the following questions. First, what are the effects of the method of pooling the output (additive vs. disjunctive) on individuals who work on a concurrent task in small groups? Second, what are the effects of group target based plus piece rate monetary incentives on individual performance in pooled output groups? And finally, what are the effects on within session performance when switching from working individually to working in pooled output groups in the presence and absence of group monetary incentives? Eight undergraduate student volunteers enrolled in Psychology courses at Western Michigan University participated in the study. Participants worked at computers on a task called SYNWORK1. The results provided evidence of social loafing for the additive task, but not the two types of disjunctive tasks. There was an increase in performance observed in the pooled output for the disjunctive-low task. Group target monetary incentives significantly improved performance for the additive and disjunctive-high tasks.
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