Team Production
When it
comes to team production and gift exchange the first thing that comes to mind
for me is group projects. It just so happens that one is coming up in this
class so I thought I would try to bring this topic up because it is very
relatable and relevant to this course. The idea of a group project is perfect
in theory, just like what Jonathan Haidt talks about in, “How to get rich the
Rich to share the Marbles.” With group projects, they are small teams of
students working together to make a better project that they would have made by
themselves, with different viewpoints and work styles meshing together, and
where everyone shares the work equally. With what Jonathan talks about in his
article is how everyone does their part and those who get more give back to
those who get less. So both of these ideas are very sound in theory, but in the
real world, nothing is really that sound.
Group
projects are great and I really do enjoy them, but I myself have had some bad
previous experiences with them, and I think that a lot of other people share
somewhat of the same experiences that I have had. What I am talking about is
the member who does no work and gets the credit. There have been a couple of
group projects that I have been on where there was one kid who really doesn’t do
everything, and everyone else has to pick up the slack and then the whole group
shares a grade. If it is a good grade, the one student who did no work benefits
the most because he did nothing and rode on the tails of everyone else and gets
a good grade. Now I know that team members can tell the teacher that the kid
did nothing, but in all honesty nobody enjoys ratting someone out, so it puts
the other group members in a very particular situation. Relating this to the
article I think that it doesn’t perfectly match up with it, but it revolves
around some of the main concepts.
In the
marble scenario, two people are doing the exact same amount of work but one is
getting a better payoff. It is the opposite in the group project scenario where
not everyone is doing the same work, but they are getting the same payoff. I
believe that what most of us are worried about in life is the payoff. A lot of
people don’t look at the work; they look at the money. People don’t pick jobs because
they are easy, they pick jobs because they will make more money with those
jobs. So with gift exchange in my group project example, everyone wants the
gift of a good grade, and some might be willing to put in the work, but others
might not be, and this deals with fairness. I think that the success in this
example relies on good communication from those involved, and proper
organization.
Luckily
group projects work most of the time and students split the work equally and
get back what they put in. The issue with this in the real world is that
everyone is out for themselves and people value their work differently. Some people
do get the short end of the stick, and I don’t know if our economy will ever be
able to fix that.
One of the questions I would have liked you to consider is whether the free riding is inevitable or if the behavior might be modified afters some suitable interaction. In other words, you might consider the things from the perspective of the free rider. Does the person view his own behavior as fair? Or does he have some other issue that the group is unaware of which is driving this behavior? If there is such an issue and if some arrangement can be made to handle that, then wouldn't everyone feel better about it?
ReplyDeleteAt one step further back from this, you might try to anticipate some of the probable causes for the free riding. Perhaps there is a lack of confidence in being able to do the work. Another possibility is if the other team members already know one another. A third possibility might be a perception of prejudice based on race, religion, national origin, or gender. You can probably make the list longer and still not cover ever eventuality.
There is then the matter of what is fair to the other team members. If they actually knew the cause of the free riding, so might do something effective about it, is there a burden on them to do that or not?
to answer your first question i believe that there is no clear answer because this behavior can stem from multiple different reasons. the free rider could view his work as fair, or he could go through the whole project knowing that he did not put in fair effort and still be okay with that. i think that there could be external reasons for someone to free ride, an example could be that the free rider has many different projects going on at the same time and had to neglect one so that the other projects could work, but this comes down to proper communication with other group members. if there were other external issues that would hinder one members performance i believe that it would be okay as long as he informed the group that he won't be able to do as much work. to answer your question on the burden of team members i believe that again it comes down to proper communication. being a free rider isn't okay, but someone who has a lot on their plates and does what they can for the group, even if it is a little, is more beneficial then someone who completely neglects the situation as a whole.
DeleteI briefly discussed free riding in my post as well. Like you said, communication is the most important aspect if you want to avoid free riding. If in a group with people you already know, perhaps it is easier to call out the individuals not doing their share than it would be had you not known them previously. In a group with classmates you just met, it is probably easiest to delegate the work equally at the onset of the project. In this case, the group has a shared sense of responsibility. Students can still free ride in this scenario, but this is a good start to helping a group accomplish its goal.
ReplyDelete