Motivation and Social Loafing Tendency as Determinant of Academic

Achievement

Rika Eliana

, Ferry Novliadi

Departement of Social Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Jl. Dr Mansyur No.7, Medan,

Indonesia

Departement of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Sumatera Utara, Medan,

Indonesia

Keywords: Social Loafing Tendency, Academic Achievement ,Students Motivation

Abstract: In this present paper we report a correlational study aboutthe effect of motivation (achievement, power, and

affiliation motive) and social loafing tendency on student’s academic achievement. Social Loafing Tendency

is a relatively new construct, which refers to individual’s habitual response to cease contributionor effort when

assigned to work in a group. The results showed that power and affiliation motive did not relate significantly

with individual’s Social Loafing Tendency. However, low achievement motive was associated with high

Social Loafing Tendency. Mediational analysis showed that high Social Loafing Tendency as affected by

achievement motivation predicted lower academic achievement

1 INTRODUCTION

Learning in group is a common concept for students.

Even some assignments given by lecturers tend to

make students work in groups. Number of studies

have shown that learning in group might increase

students probability to engage in social loafing.

Social loafing is a term that refers to the situation

where an individual, reduce their performance when

working in a team. Social loafing has been known to

have a negative effect in group performance.

Therefore, considering the likelihood of social

loafing is crucial when applying a collaborative

method of learning in class. This research’s purpose

is to answer the limit of students’ motivations before

affecting their tendency to commit social loafing

when assigned for collaborative learning. Social

loafing indicate that individual’s reduce effort when

they assigned to work in a group, tend to working

alone (Karau,William, 1993]. Studies thus far have

focused on contextual factor in social loafing. For

example, people were more likely partake in social

loafing when their individual contribution is not

appraised (Harkins,Szymanski, 1989) When

individual feels their contribution is unnecessary for

group performance (Price, 2006) and when there

were no contingency such as rewards or punishment

for their individual performance. Previous studies

showed out the importance of personality in social

loafing. For Example , People who highly need for

achievement is less likely to be involved in social

loafing when working in group (Hart, 2004)

].Recently, Ying et all proposed social loafing in

terms of personality construct. They formulated the

social loafing tendency (SLT), which refers to

individual’s habitual (trait-like) response when

assigned to work in a group. They proposed that

people possessed varying degree of preference to

engage in social loafing. Some individuals have

higher preference for social loafing than others. To

test their proposal, Ying devised the social loafing

tendency questionnaire (SLTQ) designed to tap on

participants’ preference to engage in social loafing

when working in a group.(Ying 2014) The

performance of high SLT individuals was worse only

when they work in group, but not when they work by

themselves. These results validated Ying’s et al

proposal that individuals possessed varying degree

and preference of SLT when assigned to work in a

group. The values of working as a team may propel

students in a group to assure that each individuals in

the group possessed sufficient knowledge and

understanding on a given task. However, it is often

the case that some members of a work group refuse

to value and endorse the ethic of working as a team.

As described by Clark and Baker (Clark, 2011) in

1720

Eliana, R. and Novliadi, F.

Motivation and Social Loaﬁng Tendency as Determinant of Academic Achievement.

DOI: 10.5220/0010096517201723

In Proceedings of the International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches (ICOSTEERR 2018) - Research in Industry 4.0, pages

1720-1723

ISBN: 978-989-758-449-7

their longitudinal research, some students just want a

past as they intentionally reduce their effort when

working in a group. Motivation is driving force to

activate, direct, a goal directed behavior

(Kleinginna,1981) In human motivation theory

David McClelland postulated three are three main

motivators: (1) achievement, (2) power, (3) and

affiliation motive. Based upon McClelland’s

explanation, several hypotheses may be postulated in

regard to the relationships of motivation and Social

Loafing Tendency. According to McClelland, people

with high achievement motive have a strong need to

struggle and achieve success (Schönbrodt,2012). It

could be hypothesized that people who have high

achievement motive will tend to avoid off social

loafin, because social loafing will be an inhibitor

factor for its success. Studies also show that people

with high power motive has the encouragement to

conduct and affect othersTherefore, we hypothesized

people with high need of power would not do and

avoid social loafing because they will show their

weaknesses in terms of influencing others. People

with high affiliation has a strong need to be affiliated

and accepted to their group, so we hypothesized that

someone with high affiliation motive will try not to

do with social loafing.

2 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

This research objectives is to identify whether social

loafing as consequences of achievement motivation,

affiliation, and power has impact on low academic

achievement

3 METHODS

3.1 Study Design and Data Collection

This research is correlational study and using survey

method.Participants were 148 psychology students

from the Universitas Sumatera Utara (24 male, 124

female). Participants were invited to participate in the

study. They were initially told that the research was

aimed to test a new psychological personality

assessment tool. After signing an inform consent,

participants completed the questionnaire. They were

subsequently thanked, debriefed, and given a

souvenir.

3.2 Measurement

All items were constructed in a six points response

format (1 = “not at all” – 6 = “very much”). Scales

were created by averaging items. The achievement,

power, and affiliation motive was taken and

translated from the Unified Motive Scale

(Schönbrodt,2012) Achievement motive was

measured with 8 items(e.g., “Personally producing

work of high quality”, “Projects that challenge me to

the limits of my ability”; α = .88). We measured

power motive with 10 items (e.g., “I would like to be

an executive with power over others”, “I like to have

to final say”; α = .87). We measured affiliation

motive with 10 items (e.g., “I try to be in the company

of friends as much as possible”, “I spend a lot of time

visiting friends”; α = .89). Social loafing tendency

was measured by using the translated version of

Ying’s et al (2014) social loafing tendency

questionnaire (SLTQ). The translated version of

SLTQ was made by Zahra ,Eliana,Budiman,

Novliadi (Zahra et al, 2015) which consisted of 7

items (e.g., “In a team, I am not indispensable”, “In a

team, it does not matter whether or not I try my best”;

α = .88).We hypothesized that achievement, power,

and affiliation motives would significantly predicted

social loafing tendency. Moreover, we also expected

social loafing tendency as affected by the motives

would be predicted higher academic achievement.

3.3 Data Analysis

We tested the hypotheses through a path analysis.

The visualization of the path analysis is presented in

Figure 1, while the complete results are described in

Table 1.

4 RESULTS

Figure 1: Motives, social loafing tendency, and academic

achievement.

Power

motive

Achievement

motive

Affiliation

motive

Social

loafing

tendency

Academic

achievement

Motivation and Social Loaﬁng Tendency as Determinant of Academic Achievement

1721

In line with hypothesis high achievement motivation

predicted less social loafing tendency. This means

that students with high achievement motivation are

less likely to engage in social loafing when assigned

to work in a group. In contrast with the other motive,

power and affiliation motives did not significantly

predicted social loafing tendency. Moreover, social

loafing tendency as affected by motivation

significantly predicted academic achievement. This

means that students who were high in achievement

motivation were less likely to engage in social

loafing, as the consequence, they manage to achieve

better than those with low achievement motivation.

Table 1: Motivation, social loafing tendency, and academic

achievement

B Std.

Error

Z-

value

Academic

achievement

Social

loafing

tendency

-.24 0.080 -

3.009

Social loafing

tendency

Power

motive

.153

0.080 -

1.907

Affiliation

motive

.018 0.074 0.244 .

Achievement

motive

.466

0.083 -

5.616

noted: ** = p < .01, * = p < .05, ns= non-significant

5 DISCUSSION

In this research, we focus on personality

aspect,which is motivation that each individual have

toward social loafing tendency. From this research

the result is people that has high achievement motive

tend to have low social loafing tendency. As

McLelland in Kleinginexplained, people that have

high achievement motive has the needs to decide, and

finish the challenge and goal that their set or given to

themKleingin,1981). Moreover, they also like

feedback and rewards over their achievement or

progress that their get. Therefore, they always want

to maintain their quality on other work maximally.

This cause people which has high achievement

motive always avoiding habit that could decreasing

their quality on work , including habit that could led

to social loafing tendency. Furthermore, from the

research, we could conclude that social loafing

tendency have an impact on student academic

achievement. The higher the social loafing tendency

that the student have, the lower the academic

achievement that the attained. Results also supports

the research by Zahra et al (Zahra, 2015) ]. Social

loafing tendency could happen if someone faced

group based task. University curriculum nowadays

demands students with group based task that could

led to boomerang to the students academic

achievement it self. In other words, group based task

that usually done by students could led to less

positive thing in study which is social loafing. In line

with Ying (Ying, 2014)] each individual that has

social loafing tendency not necessarily respond the

same while doing individual based task. On the

contrary , the group presence that led someone to

reducing their respond to work hard. Nonetheless, the

research above shows that even though they faced to

group based task,the people which has a strong

achievement motive will not be affected of group

task demand. To manage it work out the students

have to has high achievement motive and the

enhancement could be strived. Aside from that, this

study shows that decreasing the social loafing

tendency in the students circle is the important thing

to do right now.

6 CONCLUSION

The result shows that individuality factor in this case

motivation, give impact in social loafing tendency.

Specifically our research show that university student

who possess bigger motivation to achieve more will

have low social loafing tendency. However

affiliation motivation and power motivation did not

have significant impact on social loafing tendency.

Furthermore, social loafing influence on student

academic achievement. From the description above ,

applying group based task on college curriculum

need to be recheck. Aside from contextual factor

which give impact on social loafing, personal factor

that could appear also need to be taken to

consideration. The lecturer who gives the assignment

ICOSTEERR 2018 - International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches

1722

must have control , to keep the group working

effectively.

7 RECOMMENDATION

According the research above ,continue the research

with intervention from contextual aspect could be

alternative research in social loafing tendency

number in among university student. Group based

task could be given as long the task giver has control

on in this case the controller is the lecturer.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research was funded by Universitas Sumatera

Utara which provided TALENTA fund in 2017.We

thank our colleagues Omar AlifBurkhan who

provided the idea for this research and help us

elaborating this research futher

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