Social Loafing Among Members of Undergraduate Software Engineering Groups: Persistence of Perception Seven Years After

TL;DR

This study investigates the persistence of social loafing perceptions among undergraduate software engineering students, analyzing factors influencing it and its implications for teaching effectiveness over a seven-year span.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of social loafing in software engineering groups, considering demographic factors and comparing findings with a previous 2008 study.

Findings

Task visibility reduces social loafing.

Contributions, dominance, aggression, and sucker effect increase social loafing.

Perception of social loafing persists among students.

Abstract

We surveyed 169 undergraduate students who are enrolled in various courses. They were members of software engineering groups formed to solve various real-world computational problems by implementing software projects as part of the requirements of the course. This time, our analysis show that task visibility is negatively associated with social loafing while contributions, dominance, aggression and sucker effect are positively correlated. We further found out that perception of social loafing exists and still persists among members of computer programming groups. Compared to our 2008 analysis, we provide in this paper detailed analysis based on demographic parameters such as gender, course taken, age group, type of residence (urban or rural), and region of residence. The implication of this result is that aside from the usual problems that an instructor faces in teaching software engineering-related courses, the presence of social loafing also adds to the impediment of teaching effectiveness. Thus, it is imperative that instructors and course designers consider the implications associated with social loafing when designing group projects.