People withdraw effort in a group not from laziness but to avoid being exploited by others they believe are free riding.
Kerr showed in 1983 that participants reduced effort when a partner appeared capable but unwilling, and not when the partner appeared unable. The motive is fairness rather than economy: people will work hard for a weak partner and refuse to carry a shirking one. The remedy is therefore visibility of contribution, not exhortation.
In practice
- A team member who stops covering for a colleague is enforcing a norm, not disengaging.
- A group project where effort is invisible converges on the level of its least willing member.
- Standing
- Distinguished from social loafing, which needs no belief about others. The two are frequently conflated and have different remedies.
- Subject
- Organizations & Bureaucracy
- Essay
- How organisations behave when nobody is steering