Free-Riding in Group Projects: Control Mechanisms and Preliminary Data
- 1 August 1990
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Journal of Marketing Education
- Vol. 12 (2) , 61-67
- https://doi.org/10.1177/027347539001200208
Abstract
The article discusses the causes of free-riding in group activities and reviews the empirical literature, then makes 15 recommendations for reducing free-riding by students in academic marketing group projects. The recommendations are based on a review of empirical work in the fields of free-riding and social loafing. The authors also offer preliminary data on student perceptions regarding the effectiveness of six techniques for reducing free-riding: (1) group cohesiveness (group self-selection), (2) group size, (3) unilateral expulsion of teammates, (4) unilateral withdrawal from the group, (5) instructor discussion of the free-riding problem, and (6) evaluation of teammates.Keywords
This publication has 19 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Role of Evaluation in Eliminating Social LoafingPersonality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 1985
- Equity in effort: An explanation of the social loafing effect.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1985
- Social loafing on difficult tasks: Working collectively can improve performance.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1985
- Motivation losses in small groups: A social dilemma analysis.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1983
- Effects of task difficulty and task uniqueness on social loafing.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1982
- Social loafing: Allocating effort or taking it easy?Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 1980
- An experimental analysis of social trapsJournal of Experimental Social Psychology, 1977
- Behavior, communication, and assumptions about other people's behavior in a commons dilemma situation.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1977
- Cooperation and Group Size in the N-Person Prisoners' DilemmaJournal of Conflict Resolution, 1976
- The Ringelmann effect: Studies of group size and group performanceJournal of Experimental Social Psychology, 1974