Looking for a place to hide: a study of social loafing in agile teams

Social loafing refers to the behaviour of individual members of a team who have tendency not to work as hard as they could or should, because social groups provide a degree of anonymity such that individual team members feel that their poor performance will be hidden by the overall output of the team. Agile Software Development philosophy espouses the importance of cohesive project teams, the empowerment of these teams, and the collective ownership of the code produced by the team — social values similar to those of communities of practice. This paper posits that one of the unintended consequences of Agile Software Development is that it may give rise to social loafing, under certain conditions. In order to test this proposition, research was carried out on two software development teams over an eight month period to determine if the values inherent in Agile Software Development could give rise to social loafing The theoretical assumption adopted by the authors was that the project team which fully adopted the agile approach would exhibit a greater tendency for social loafing, in comparison to the other team. The findings of the study indicate, however, that the opposite was the case; accordingly, the study’s findings are interpreted to offer an explanation for this apparent paradox

Thereʼs no ʻIʼ in ʻEmergency Management Team:ʼ designing and evaluating a serious game for training emergency managers in group decision making skills

Serious games are games that are designed to educate rather than entertain. The game outlined and evaluated here was commissioned and designed as a tool to improve the group decision making skills of people who manage real-world emergencies such as floods, fires, volcanoes and chemical spills. The game design exploits research on decision making groups and applies pedagogically sound games design principles. An evaluation of the game design was carried out based on a paper prototype. Eight participants were recruited and assigned to two groups of four participants each. These groups were video recorded while playing the game and the video was analysed in terms of game actions and member participation. Results indicate that the group who behaved in a more appropriate manner for a decision making group were rewarded with more positive feedback from the game state. These findings suggest that the game itself delivers appropriate feedback to players on their collaborative behaviour and is thus fit for the purposes intended in the current project

Information technology team projects in higher education: an international viewpoint

It is common to find final or near final year undergraduate Information Technology students undertaking a substantial development project; a project where the students have the opportunity to be fully involved in the analysis, design, and development of an information technology service or product. This involvement has been catalyzed and prepared for during their previous studies where the students have been told and shown how to develop similar systems. It is the belief that only through this ‘real’ project do they get the chance to experience something similar to what is expected of them when they embark on their chosen profession; that is, as an information technology professional. The high value of ‘near real life’ educational experience is recognized by many universities across the globe. The aim of this paper is to present examples from three countries - Australia, United Kingdom and South Africa, of the delivery of these team, capstone or industrial experience projects; their curricula and management processes. Academics from institutions in each of the countries share experiences, challenges and pitfalls encountered during the delivery of these information technology projects within their institutions. An overview of each institution’s strategies is provided and highlights specific issues such as the selection of projects, allocation of teams to projects, legal requirements, assessment methods, challenges and benefits. The pedagogies presented here are not exhaustive; however, the three institutions do have in common the implementation of a combination of constructivism with a community of practice approach in delivering the project unit. The three universities recognize the need for industrial experience and learning of applied skills, and therefore make these projects a compulsory part of the curriculum. The projects tend to be real life business problems which are solved over a period of two semesters, and in the case of Cape Town it could be two consecutive years of two semesters each. These projects tend to involve practical development (for example databases and web sites). The process of project-to-team allocation is generally similar in all cases. Despite their differences, team work related problems are quite similar in all three cases presented, and seem to appear as a result of team work complexity, and the number of stakeholders involved. The intention of this paper is not to propose solutions to these problems (as these would be context dependent), but to draw the attention to the main problem categories for similar schemes, these are; • project selection, • management of students, • management of academic staff, • student team motivation, • equality and diversity, • passengers, and • assessment. Furthermore, it is not the intention of the authors to portray one approach as better than another, however, the approaches are representative of how team projects are being delivered across the globe, and in particular, in the contributing institutions. It is hoped that the assimilation and dissemination of information regarding the various approaches presented will nurture further discussion, and open communication across the globe with the view to enhancing the teaching and learning experience of such projects

Algorithmic loafing and mitigation strategies in Human-AI teams

This research work was initiated under the Scottish Informatics & Computer Alliance (SICSA) Remote Collaboration Activities when the first author was working at the University of St Andrews, UK. We would like to thank the SICSA for the partial funding of the research work.Exercising social loafing – exerting minimal effort by an individual in a group setting – in human-machine teams could critically degrade performance, especially in high-stakes domains where human judgement is essential. Akin to social loafing in human interaction, algorithmic loafing may occur when humans mindlessly adhere to machine recommendations due to reluctance to engage analytically with AI recommendations and explanations. We consider how algorithmic loafing could emerge and how to mitigate it. Specifically, we posit that algorithmic loafing can be induced through repeated encounters with correct decisions from the AI and transparency may combat it. As a form of transparency, explanation is offered for reasons that include justification, control, and discovery. However, algorithmic loafing is further reinforced by the perceived competence that an explanation provides. In this work, we explored these ideas via human subject experiments (n = 239). We also study how improving decision transparency through validation by an external human approver affects performance. Using eight experimental conditions in a high-stakes criminal justice context, we find that decision accuracy is typically unaffected by multiple forms of transparency but there is a significant difference in performance when the machine errs. Participants who saw explanations alone are better at overriding incorrect decisions; however, those under induced algorithmic loafing exhibit poor performance with variation in decision time. We conclude with recommendations on curtailing algorithmic loafing and achieving social facilitation, where task visibility motivates individuals to perform better.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Sociopsychotechnological Predictors of Individual’s Social Loafing in Virtual Team

The rapid development of technology and the demands of the workers to be productive have made efficiency and effectiveness of virtual team collaboration is becoming increasingly urgent lately. Therefore, it is important to identify the variables undermining the efficiency and effectiveness. This study aimed to investigate the role of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and perceived playfulness of online collaboration tool (as elements of technology acceptance) and xenophobia in predicting social loafing (at the individual level)─a social psychological phenomenon that shows the declining performance of the individual when working in the group. The contribution of this research is its attempt to combine social psychological and technological factors in explaining human performance in the context of the group when interacting with technology. The research design was correlational predictive, with multiple linear regression data analysis technique. Participants of this study were 80 students and employees (43 males, 37 females; mean of age = 25.58 years of old, standard deviation of age = 4.92 years) who work using online collaboration tool in a virtual team. The results showed that the perceived playfulness, perceived ease of use, and xenophobia were able to predict an individual’s social loafing, but the perceived usefulness is not able to predict it. Implications of the results of research in order to prevent social loafing are stated in the Discussion section

Gamification Risks to Enterprise Teamwork: Taxonomy, Management Strategies and Modalities of Application

Gamification corresponds to the use of game elements to encourage certain attitudes and behaviours in a serious context. When applied to enterprise teamwork, gamification can lead to negative side-effects which compromise its benefits. For example, applying competitive elements such as leaderboard may lead to clustering amongst team members and encourage adverse work ethics such as intimidation and pressure. Despite the recognition of the problem in the literature, the research on concretising such gamification risks is scarce. There is also a lack of methods to identify gamification risks and their management strategies. In this paper, we conduct a multi-stage qualitative research and develop taxonomy of risks, risk factors and risk management strategies. We also identify the modalities of application of these strategies, including who should be involved and how. Finally, we provide a checklist to help the risk identification process as a first step towards a comprehensive method for eliciting and managing gamification risks to teamwork within enterprises

Information Technology and Social Loafing:A Qualitative Investigation

While IT-supported teams are increasingly popular, most suffer from an anti-social behavior called social loafing (SL). SL is the tendency to withhold one’s effort when working with others. Past research has examined various determinants and mechanisms of SL but the relationships between IT and SL have remained largely unexplored. Our objectives are to identify the key factors that play a role in SL in IT-supported groups and to investigate how IT can influence SL. Drawing from the literature and on the basis of seven case studies, we identified four categories of factors related to personal, group, organizational and task issues. We will conduct additional cases to advance our theory development on the influence of IT on SL. The implications for research are important since this study provides a better understanding of the determinants of SL and the role IT can play in influencing such behaviors in teams and organizations

Management of Virtual Offices

Many organizational leaders manage virtual employees without the specific training and experience required for leading a virtual organization, which can lead to billions of dollars in lost productivity. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies managers used to manage a virtual office. The target population consisted of 4 managers located in the mid-Atlantic region of the United States who had a minimum of 2 years of experience managing virtual offices. The conceptual framework for this study was social exchange theory. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and a review of company documents. Data were analyzed using manual coding and a qualitative data analysis software; member checking and triangulation were used to enhance validity. Key themes emerged from data analysis related to management strategies: communication, leadership, and developing relationships. The results of this study might contribute to social change by supporting managers of virtual offices in reducing organizational travel costs and energy use, and supporting work-life balance through virtual business practices