Preventing the optimal Outcome - Free-Riding at Charles University

Abstract

Group work is pervading modern society's life with potentially huge advantages but also the peril of motivational losses. This master thesis focuses on the latter ones, namely on free-riding and social loafing, in the educational context. I conducted a field research at the Institute of Economic Studies at Charles University in Prague. The results are set into context with existing studies from the US, scrutinizing the generalizability of these studies. Students of this sample consider teamwork as relatively neutral, appreciate the possibility to learn from each other the strongest and consider free-riding as the biggest disadvantage. Free-riders are described as poorly prepared, having trouble to complete work at home and delivering poor quality work. As remedy, students prefer to be able to pick a team on their own. This thesis can partially confirm prior research but also contradicts some anterior findings since free-riders in this thesis are not described as behaving distractively and students do not primarily want instructors to grade them on their individual performance.