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Are You a Social Loafer If You Work with Robots?
Not necessarily new, but the introduction of robots into the workplace can present a form of loafing that is being given more attention now.
The term “social loafing” refers to the phenomenon where team members work less hard if they assume others will cover for them, and studies have shown that this is more likely to occur when people are working alongside a robot. But social loafing isn’t a new term because it was first conceptualized in 1898.
In the current state of business, when robots are involved, people come to view them as members of their team, according to researchers. They tend to be more laid back when they believe a colleague or the technology is performing exceptionally well or when they believe their own contribution would not be valued, according to the experts.
While teamwork can inspire high performance, it can also cause people to lose motivation as their unique contributions become less apparent. Experiments have shown that when workers believe robots are completing tasks and indicating any errors, they are not detecting errors they believe the robots have already identified. This, then, is known as the “looking but not seeing” effect, or becoming less involved in a task when they think either colleagues or robots have already examined the project.
