Social Loafing and Diminishing rate of return

A very strange title, it may not make someone read the whole post; or will it? Well, to make people read it, I am keeping it short. Without referring to anything specific I want to tell you that I encountered the two concepts recently. Let’s say you are required to do a job for a social cause and you want to do it (so you had committed yourself to it) but then you know there are many who are volunteering to do the same job, your effectiveness decreases. OB guys will say social loafing and economist will say the marginal production (incremental job done) curve follows a diminishing rate of return. Do you know Tragedy of the Commons?



Take another example, Mr K usually gets numerous opportunities to attend conferences and he may substitute the next opportunity of attending a conference with a weekend retreat. Mr Y who usually does not get a chance to attend any conferences may compromise on his regular business and even willing to travel moderate distance to attend the same conferences. The utilities of both the events are different to both the individuals. Sometimes I feel (privileged) people have a tendency of discounting the true value of the most basic things in our life. Or continued success may give someone a false impression that one is fully equipped to overcome any sudden changes in the environment. No wonder strategist’s have modified five forces of Porter to include ‘Complacency’.