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by cabalamat 4260 days ago
> This then encourages free riding, no?

It's more likely to do so the bigger the team. In a team of 500, someone might think "my personal contribution doesn't matter much", but they are less likely to think so in a team of 5. Furthermore, in small teams social pressures are likely to deter free riding.

> In the general case, the goals of the company and the employee are not always aligned so I don't think this is an easy problem to solve.

Yes. It's the principal-agent problem -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Principal%E2%80%93agent_problem