Social compensation

Social compensation is considered the complement of social loafing, and refers to when individuals work harder and expend more effort in a group setting - to compensate for other group members - compared to when working alone. Social compensation is consistent with the expectancy-value formulations of effort theory. Williams and Karau first documented the social compensation hypothesis. The social compensation hypothesis states that there are two factors under which social compensation may occur: the expectation that other group members will perform insufficiently and if the group product is important to the individual. More specifically, the hypothesis states that if a group member is perceived to perform insufficiently either due to trust, reliability, or direct knowledge, or if an individual perceives a task or product as personally meaningful, then an individual may contribute more towards the collective product in order to avoid an inadequate performance. Social loafing is considered the complement of social compensation. Social compensation is considered the complement of social loafing, and refers to when individuals work harder and expend more effort in a group setting - to compensate for other group members - compared to when working alone. Social compensation is consistent with the expectancy-value formulations of effort theory. Williams and Karau first documented the social compensation hypothesis. The social compensation hypothesis states that there are two factors under which social compensation may occur: the expectation that other group members will perform insufficiently and if the group product is important to the individual. More specifically, the hypothesis states that if a group member is perceived to perform insufficiently either due to trust, reliability, or direct knowledge, or if an individual perceives a task or product as personally meaningful, then an individual may contribute more towards the collective product in order to avoid an inadequate performance. Social loafing is considered the complement of social compensation. Williams and Karau conducted three experiments addressing both social loafing and social compensation, with the first experiment focused on trust. Participants were pretested on interpersonal trust using Rotter's Interpersonal trust scale then completed a generation task in which participants were to come up with as many uses for a pair of scissors as possible. Each possible use was then written on a slip of paper and placed in the appropriate box. If a participant was part of the coactive condition, then slips of paper were placed in a box to their side and if a participant was part of the collective condition, slips of paper were placed in a common box in the middle. The results of this experiment indicated that levels of trust predict if social compensation or social loafing will occur. Those with low trust showed greater productivity when working collectively rather than alone, unlike those with medium or high trust who demonstrated social loafing.