Reducing freeloading in Global Virtual Teams: A quasi-experimental approach

Abstract

Freeloading, a challenge faced by all workgroups but particularly acute in global virtual teams (GVTs), is an increasing concern as GVTs become increasingly ubiquitous in international business settings. This study employed a quasi-experimental design to evaluate the comparative effectiveness of different strategies grounded in equity theory for mitigating freeloading behavior in GVTs. The study used a sample of 2,022 GVTs comprising 12,536 business students from 43 countries who, for two months, worked on international business consulting projects. The results indicate that freeloading could be significantly reduced if the performance management system promotes a sense of equity and fairness by visible monitoring of individual effort coupled with the threat of reciprocations for insufficient contributions. Importantly, making a lack of individual effort visible through regular peer evaluations but taking no immediate punitive action could reduce perceived fairness and actually increase freeloading. The implications of these findings for practice and future research are discussed.