The Influence of Affective State and Social Loafing on Teams Over Time

Teams are a growing force in the workplace today. An interesting aspect of team research in recent years involves the maturation of teams over time and the processes teams go through as a novice team to a fully accomplished performing team. One impediment to team maturation and performance is social loafing. There were two goals in the present research and are presented in the following questions. First, do team members' effective states influence social loafing? Second, does team training affect affective state of team members, social loafing, and performance? These variables were investigated, using an interrupted time series design, as to their relationships to each other and bow they change over time. The results of the study are inconclusive, with evidence suggesting that affect does influence loafing, and that training has an effect, but finding both confirming and contradictory evidence regarding the hypotheses. The lack of conclusive evidence and future directions for research are discussed.