{
  "title": "Time management: does adding people save time?",
  "url": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/gestion-du-temps-ajouter-des-personnes-fait-il-gagner-du-temps-en",
  "language": "en",
  "datePublished": "2025-09-02",
  "publisher": {
    "name": "SHR — Swiss Human Resources",
    "url": "https://www.shr.swiss",
    "address": "Esplanade de Pont-Rouge 9A, 1212 Lancy, Suisse"
  },
  "summary": "Adding staff seems a natural response when a priority falls behind schedule. Research nevertheless invites us to distinguish the number of people assigned from the effort actually contributed.",
  "section": "Research",
  "topic": "Time Management & Prioritisation",
  "place": {
    "name": "Basel",
    "region": "Bâle-Ville",
    "country": "CH"
  },
  "keyPoints": [
    {
      "heading": "What the literature establishes",
      "point": "Bibb Latané, Kipling Williams and Stephen Harkins (1979, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology) showed in sound-production experiments that individual effort could decline when participants believed they were contributing to a collective output."
    },
    {
      "heading": "The mechanism: a contribution that seems less consequential",
      "point": "Steven Karau and Kipling Williams (1993, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology) confirmed in a meta-analysis the existence of this reduction in individual effort in collective settings, commonly called social loafing."
    },
    {
      "heading": "The premature conclusion",
      "point": "One might conclude that people should work alone or that every contribution should be measured separately."
    },
    {
      "heading": "What the evidence cannot promise",
      "point": "Sound-production experiments are far removed from preparing a regulatory submission or analysing scientific findings."
    },
    {
      "heading": "A practical check in Bâle",
      "point": "Within SHR's “[Time Management & Prioritisation](/formation/gestion-du-temps/bale)” programme, an exercise applicable in Basel is to examine any planned staffing increase for a priority deliverable, whether in pharmaceuticals, life sciences, Rhine logistics or international R&D."
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "authors": "Harkins",
      "year": "1979",
      "source": "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology"
    },
    {
      "authors": "Williams",
      "year": "1993",
      "source": "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology"
    }
  ],
  "wordCount": 421,
  "image": "https://www.shr.swiss/img/blog-Training-Time-Management-Prioritisation-Basel-gestion-du-temps-ajouter-des-personnes-fait-il-gagner-du-temps-en.jpg?v=4",
  "translations": {
    "fr": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/gestion-du-temps-ajouter-des-personnes-fait-il-gagner-du-temps",
    "en": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/gestion-du-temps-ajouter-des-personnes-fait-il-gagner-du-temps-en",
    "de": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/gestion-du-temps-ajouter-des-personnes-fait-il-gagner-du-temps-de",
    "it": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog/gestion-du-temps-ajouter-des-personnes-fait-il-gagner-du-temps-it"
  },
  "relatedPages": {
    "programme": "https://www.shr.swiss/formation/gestion-du-temps/bale",
    "city": "https://www.shr.swiss/formations-ville/bale",
    "blog": "https://www.shr.swiss/blog"
  },
  "citationPolicy": "Citation autorisée avec mention « SHR — Swiss Human Resources » et lien vers l'article."
}