Back in B school, we were taught this was something called the "diminishing marginal utility of labor", and it had more of a manufacturing sensibility to it. The naming convention that I learned also has a more sterile, less judgmental tone to it than Ringelmann's flavoring of the idea . His incorporates the notion of "social loafing", which I can't argue with but consider to be beside the point in any practical applicaton.
By whatever name though, it is a tremendously useful management insight. It is also habitually ignored. In my experience it's pretty astounding how often this time-tested, never-fail concept is not even considered. Almost always the response to project stall out is to "throw more bodies at it". I have never seen that work, and it almost always makes things worse.
If you want something done (and probably done mostly right and fast) in an organization, assign it to either one or three people.
By the way, the concept showed up in a new business book with the off putting yet begging for attention title of "I Hate People" With that as the title it will be interesting to see how it sells.
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