Productivity loss in performance groups: A motivation analysis.

This article presents a framework derived from expectancy theory for organizing the research on productivity loss among individuals combining their efforts into a common pool (i.e., the research on social loafing, free riding, and the sucker effect). Lost productivity is characterized as a problem of low motivation arising when individuals perceive no value to contributing, perceive no contingency between their contributions and achieving a desirable outcome, or perceive the costs of contributing to be excessive. Three broad categories of solutions, corresponding to each of the 3 sources of low productivity, are discussed: (a) providing incentives for contributing, (b) making contributions indispensable, and (c) decreasing the cost of contributing. Each of these solutions is examined, and directions for future research and the application of this framework to social dilemmas are discussed. For close to a century, psychologists and other social scientists have been interested in performance in groups. Traditionally, the topic of group performance has been dominated by social facilitation: the process whereby the presence of others enhances the performance of well-learned, dominant behaviors yet impairs the performance of novel, nondominant behaviors (Zajonc, 1965). The study of social facilitation can be traced back to an investigation by Triplett in 1898. Triplett demonstrated that children turned a fishing reel faster if they worked against a live competitor than if they worked alone. In the 9 decades since the initial demonstration by Triplett, hundreds of studies have investigated social facilitation, and numerous theories have been proposed to account for the phe