Social Loafing in Organizational Work Groups: The Mitigating Effect of Servant Leadership

Abstract Organizational researchers, especially in the past 15 years, have been investigating the generalizability of experimental findings on social loafing to organizational field settings. In addition to replicating many of the predictors of social loafing found in experimental studies, organizational researchers have identified contextual factors that influence the antecedents and consequences of social loafing. Variables including group size, distributive justice, task visibility, group cohesiveness, self-efficacy, trust in leader, perceived organizational support, leader–member exchange, task interdependence, and intrinsic motivation have all been found to be associated with social loafing. Servant leadership, which prioritizes fulfilling the needs of followers, was identified as a key moderating variable that may greatly reduce employee engagement in social loafing. Servant leaders enhance follower self-efficacy and meaning through empowerment, act ethically to build trust and provide fair rewards, and encourage communal sharing and helping that serves to enhance group cohesiveness.