ANSWER QUESTIONS ACCORDING TO THIS TOPIC As we discussed in this chapter, social loafing s one potential downside of working in groups. Research suggests that regardless of the type of task, when working in a group most individuals contribute less than if they were working on their own. Sometimes these people are labelled shirkers because they don't fulfill their responsibilities as group members. Other times, social loafing is overlooked, and industrious employees do the work to meet the group's performance goals. Either way, social loafing creates an ethical dilemma Whether in class projects or in jobs we have Field, most of us have experienced social oafing in groups. We may even have been guilty ourselves. Although limiting group size, holding individuals responsible for their contributions, setting group goals, and rewarding both individual and group performance might help reduce the occurrence of social loafing, in many cases people just try to work around shirkers rather than motivate them to perform at higher Levels. Managers must determine what level of social foafing for groups and for individual employees will be tolerated in terms of nonproductive meetings, performance expectations, and counterproductive work behaviours. Employees must decide what imits to social loafing they will impose on themselves and what tolerance they have for social loafers in their work groups Questions 1. Do group members have an ethical responsibility to report shirkers to leadership? If you were working on a group project for a class and a group member was loafing, would id you communicate this information to the instructor? Why or why not? 2. Do you think social loafing is always shirking (tailing to live up to your responsibilities)? Are there times when shirking is ethical or even justified? 3. Social loafing has been found to be higher in individualistic nations than in other countries. Do you think this means we should tolerate shirking by North American students and employees to a greater degree than if someone else does it