MGMT1003 Chap.7 Group Norms, Conformity and Social Loafing
Group Norms, Conformity and Social Loafing
The unwritten rules
Week 4 moves from the individual to the group. Norms are shared standards that are rarely written down and are enforced by disapproval.
Asch's line experiment shows how readily people go along with a wrong majority, and the distinction between descriptive and injunctive norms explains two different sources of that pressure.
Perception and size
People act on the norm they believe in, so pluralistic ignorance can make a whole group follow a rule few of them hold.
Adding members raises total output but lowers each member's effort, which is why the lecture recommends teams of three to six.
How this chapter is examined
Classification items on descriptive and injunctive norms are common, as are items on what Asch's figures mean and why people loaf. Applied questions usually describe a meeting where everyone agrees too quickly or a group project where effort collapses.
Name the mechanism, conformity, a misread norm or one of the two causes of loafing, and propose a structural fix such as private input, smaller teams or visible roles.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Why teams outperform individuals
- 02
Groups, norms and how norms are enforced
- 03
Asch's line experiment and conformity
- 04
Descriptive versus injunctive norms
- 05
Pluralistic ignorance and perceived norms
- 06
Ringelmann and social loafing
- 07
Ideal team size and the two-pizza rule
Worked example · free
Read Asch's conformity results on the right base
- 1The 75% figure counts participants who conformed at least once, not most of the time.
- 1Counting responses, 37% conformed to the incorrect majority, so most answers stayed correct.
- 1A quarter of participants never conformed; the accurate summary is that conformity was common across people but not the majority of answers.
Key terms
- Social Norms
- Shared, usually unwritten standards of what group members do and approve of, enforced by disapproval or exclusion.
- Descriptive Norm
- What most others in a group commonly do, most influential in new or uncertain situations.
- Conformity
- Going along with a group's judgement or behaviour, even against one's own view, to avoid rejection.
- Two-Pizza Rule
- Amazon's policy that a team should be small enough to be fed by two pizzas, keeping every contribution visible.
- Injunctive Norm
- A shared view of what group members approve or disapprove of, which carries social penalties for breaking it.
Group Norms, Conformity and Social Loafing FAQ
What did Asch's line experiment show?
That people often go along with a unanimous wrong answer they can see is wrong. In the lecture's figures, 37% of responses conformed, 75% of participants conformed at least once and 25% never did. The pressure comes from fear of being disliked or rejected, even when the stakes are trivial.
How do you tell a descriptive norm from an injunctive one?
Ask what the statement reports. If it describes what people do, it is descriptive; if it describes what people think should happen, it is injunctive. Descriptive norms guide behaviour in uncertain situations, while injunctive norms carry the threat of social sanction.
Why do people loaf in groups?
The lecture gives two structural causes. Members who believe others are not doing their fair share cut their own effort to restore equity, and members who think their individual input cannot be identified feel less responsible. Both are fixed by making contributions visible and assigning clear responsibility.
What is pluralistic ignorance, with an example?
It is a shared misreading of a group's own norm. A new employee might assume colleagues are expected to answer emails late at night and do the same, when most people in the team do not. Correcting it means finding out what people believe the norm is and stating the real one openly.
Exam move
Learn the Asch figures with their bases, the one-line test for the two norm types and the two causes of social loafing. Then practise one applied answer that diagnoses a group problem with a named norm concept and fixes it with a structural change such as size or visible roles.
To finish, recall a group assignment that went badly and decide whether equity, hidden contributions or group size was the main cause, then write the fix you would apply next time.
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