A field study on social loafing: implications of expectations on co-workers, task meaningfulness, relationship meaningfulness and indivuals orientation

Abstract

This study examines the potential moderating effect of Task meaningfulness (TM) and Relationship meaningfulness (RM), of team members, on the relationship between Expectations on co-workers competence and reliability (ECW) and Social loafing (SL). In addition, a direct effect of an individuals Orientation (i.e. Allocentric or idiocentric) (O) on Relationship meaningfulness (RM ) is tested too. In a field-based study, 697 production team members, as well as, their direct supervisors & co-workers responded to questionnaires. Results of descriptive statistics, correlations, analysis of variance and moderated regression analysis are exhibited. These results indicate the existence of diverse significant relationships vii between the proposed SL model variables. As expected, the direct effect of O on RM was found as significant. On the contrary, the moderating effects of TM and RM on the relationship between ECW and SL were not significant. As a result, the study of a potential direct, antecedent, or mediating effect of these two variables on SL is recommended for future research. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.