An eye for an eye
New research suggests that a tit-for-tat mentality in the workplace can be a strong factor on pay and productivity
First published: 28/05/2009 | By: Neil Baker
Greed is officially passé. Once celebrated as the engine that fuelled a booming global economy, greed is now blamed as a root cause of crash and recession.
Next to go could be vindictiveness. Not because in our new downturn economy we all want to be nicer to each other. Rather, as research from the universities of Bonn and Maastricht suggests, being nasty to other people is not in our own self interest.
People who live by an “eye for an eye” philosophy just don’t do as well in life, the researchers found. They experience more unemployment than other people, they have fewer friends, and they are generally less satisfied with their lives.
Social scientists talk about reciprocity. If you respond to a kind act, such as an invitation to dinner, with a kind act in return, then you are displaying what’s called positive reciprocity.
And if you avenge a perceived unfairness with something nasty in return, then that’s negative reciprocity. Some people incline to being positive, others negative, and some do both.
The researchers used data gathered by the German Institute for Economic Research to find out about attitudes to reciprocity.
They asked a selection of Germans to state, for example, to what extent they would repay a favour or, on the other hand, an insult on a tit∞for∞tat basis. These answers were then matched with other data in the survey that described how happy people were, their employment experiences and so on.
They found some interesting patterns. People who tend to be positively reciprocal are very sensitive to workplace incentives, for example.
Offer them a good pay rate, and they will be more likely to work overtime than people who are negatively reciprocal. That means they tend to earn more money.
This is in stark contrast to vindictive people. With such people the equation “more money = more work” does not always apply. Even pay cuts are not an effective means of bringing negatively reciprocal people back into line.
Ultimately the danger arises that they will take revenge – for example, by refusing to work, or by sabotage. “On the basis of these theoretical considerations it would be natural to expect that negatively reciprocal people are more likely to lose their jobs”, says Professor Armin Falk of Bonn University.
“Consequently, negatively reciprocal people experience a significantly higher rate of unemployment”.
The message seems to be this: in tough economic times, avoid greedy vindictive people. No wonder investment bankers are so unpopular just now.
