Dealing with Slackers in College Classroom Work Groups.
The purpose of this study was to probe the presence of slackers in college classroom work group, how students react to slackers, and the recommendations students would make for working with slackers in future group projects. Thirty-seven college students participated in one of five focus groups. Results indicate that (a) college students working in classroom work groups report working with slackers to be frustrating due to a lack of indifference on the slackers' part, (b) they deal with slackers by either ignoring them or including them in the group task, and (c) they would confront slackers in future work group endeavors. Future research should examine the influence of slackers on group members' feelings of grouphate. ********** Most college students have favorable impressions about participating in group work in their courses (Payne, Monk-Turner, Smith, & Sumter, 2006). Students believe that they accomplish more by working in groups by working alone (Winter & Neal, 1995), they are able to contribute to their group projects in a meaningful way (Payne & Monk-Turner, 2006), and they enjoy learning about and gaining new perspectives from their group members (Duin, 1990). Moreover, group work provides students with immediate educational and social benefits as well as exposure to future career skills (Colbeck, Campbell, & Bjorklund, 2000; Monk-Turner & Payne, 2005). Yet, as researchers (Duin, 1990; Livingstone & Lynch, 2000) have noted, one complaint students have about group work centers on personnel (i.e., group members) issues. One issue in particular is dealing with slackers, which is the label given to group members who fail to contribute equally or equitably to a group task. Considered to be deviant group members (Gillespie, Rosamond, & Thomas, 2006), the presence of slackers can be debilitating to a group. For example, students who have worked with slackers report that they are less likely to agree that group members learned from them, less likely to agree that they learned from group members, and less likely to look forward to future group work than students who have not worked with slackers (Payne & Monk-Turner, 2006). Although students worry about having slackers in their groups, their most common solution is to avoid them (Colbeck et al., 2000). This solution is not altogether surprising, given that not only are many students conflict avoidant when it comes to work groups (Schullery & Gibson, 2001), but dealing with disputes and coordinating member tasks are two issues with which students in work groups face difficulty (Duin, 1990). To probe further the presence of slackers in small groups and how students react to slackers, the following two research questions are posed: RQ1: What do group members find frustrating about working with slackers? RQ2: How do group members deal with slackers? Because a negative group experience impacts how students view their next small group experience (Gillespie et al., 2006), it is possible that working with slackers provides group members with the impetus to develop ways to cope with slackers in future classroom work groups. Among the recommendations made generally by students on how to work effectively in small groups are for members to be willing to work together, share all aspects of the project, and communicate with each other (Payne et al., 2006). To identify the recommendations students would make for working with slackers, the following research question is posed: RQ3: What recommendations would group members make for dealing with slackers? Method Participants were recruited from students enrolled in an introductory small group communication course. Approximately halfway through the semester, students were invited to participate in one of five hour-long focus group sessions. Students were informed that (a) their participation was voluntary, (b) the purpose was to identify their feelings about working in a small group, (c) their contributions would be confidential, (d) their participation would not affect their course standing, and (e) the focus group would be audiotaped. …