The prisoner’s dilemma in the workplace: how cooperative behavior of managers influence organizational performance and stress

Kybernetes ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Josef Spurný ◽  
Ivan Kopeček ◽  
Radek Ošlejšek ◽  
Jaromír Plhák ◽  
Francesco Caputo

Purpose The aim of the paper is to analyze the impact of cooperativeness of managers who occupy central positions in interaction networks on the performance and stress levels of a whole organization. Design/methodology/approach To explore this relationship, a multi-parameter agent-based model is proposed which implements the prisoner’s dilemma game approach on a scale-free network in the NetLogo environment. A description of the socioeconomic aspects and the key concepts implemented in the model is provided. Stability and correctness have been tested through a series of validation experiments, including sensitivity analysis. The source code is available for further exploration and testing. Findings The simulations revealed that improving the stress resistance of all employees moderately increases organizational performance. Analyzing managers’ roles showed that increasing only the stress resistance of managers does not account for significantly higher overall performance. However, a substantial increase in organizational performance and a decrease in stress levels are achieved when managers are unconditionally cooperative. This effect is stronger for the lowered stress resistance of employees. Therefore, the willingness of managers to cooperate under all circumstances can be a key factor in achieving better performance and building a more pleasant, stress-free working environment. Originality/value This paper aims to present a model for analyzing cooperation, specifically in the organizational context, extending the prisoner’s dilemma with novel concepts and mechanisms. Although the results confirm the existing theories about the importance of central nodes in complex networks, they also provide further details on how the cooperative behavior of central nodes (i.e. the managers) might benefit the organization.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Testori ◽  
M Kempf ◽  
RB Hoyle ◽  
Hedwig Eisenbarth

© 2019 Hogrefe Publishing. Personality traits have been long recognized to have a strong impact on human decision-making. In this study, a sample of 314 participants took part in an online game to investigate the impact of psychopathic traits on cooperative behavior in an iterated Prisoner's dilemma game. We found that disinhibition decreased the maintenance of cooperation in successive plays, but had no effect on moving toward cooperation after a previous defection or on the overall level of cooperation over rounds. Furthermore, our results underline the crucial importance of a good model selection procedure, showing how a poor choice of statistical model can provide misleading results.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Testori ◽  
M Kempf ◽  
RB Hoyle ◽  
Hedwig Eisenbarth

© 2019 Hogrefe Publishing. Personality traits have been long recognized to have a strong impact on human decision-making. In this study, a sample of 314 participants took part in an online game to investigate the impact of psychopathic traits on cooperative behavior in an iterated Prisoner's dilemma game. We found that disinhibition decreased the maintenance of cooperation in successive plays, but had no effect on moving toward cooperation after a previous defection or on the overall level of cooperation over rounds. Furthermore, our results underline the crucial importance of a good model selection procedure, showing how a poor choice of statistical model can provide misleading results.


Author(s):  
Patrícia Gomes ◽  
Silvia M. Mendes ◽  
João Carvalho

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of performance measurement systems (PMS) on organizational performance in public sector. In addition, it investigates the moderating effects of the organizational context. Design/methodology/approach Using a multivariate analysis, the authors investigate the extent of PMS used among Portuguese Government agencies and their effects on organizational performance. Data were gathered from the only survey (based on their Comparative Public Organization Data Base for Research and Analysis survey) applied to the Portuguese Government agencies. Findings The authors find that the extent to which agencies use PMS is positively associated with the organizational performance (in a multidimensional perspective). Moreover, the organizational performance is contingent upon the fit between PMS and the agency’s context in light of the contingency theory (especially the orientation to citizens and the level of competition). Originality/value Although prior research has studied the use of PMS in public sector organizations, one question that has not been effectively answered is whether performance information is effectively used to improve public sector performance. In this way, this paper contributes to the understanding of the impact of PMS on the organizational performance, providing empirical evidence in a country that is in a period of “transition” in the introduction of NPM reforms.


2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 212-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Mohammed Alamri

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop an extensive conceptualization of strategic management accounting (SMA) facets, as well as to explore the impact of these facets on both financial and non-financial measures of organizational performance (OP). Design/methodology/approach Data are collected from 435 accounting managers working in Saudi companies listed in the Saudi Stock Exchange. The study applies hierarchical regression analysis to test the association between SMA facets and OP. Findings The results show that SMA facets significantly affect OP, assessed in the two major categories of financial and non-financial performance. Research limitations/implications The dominance of companies listed in the Saudi Stock Exchange in the data set limits the generalizability of the findings. Practical implications The present study supports the idea that companies can enhance their OP by adopting some facets of SMA such as the availability of appropriate structural arrangements, supportive resources, adequate information types and usages and good organizational climate. Originality/value The current study expands the conceptualization of SMA in light of organizational context as a set of facets to overcome the polarization found in the existing literature and explores their impact on OP, including non-financial performance, for which empirical evidence is still scant.


Author(s):  
Yohei Mitani

AbstractLocal norms and shared beliefs in cohesive social groups regulate individual behavior in everyday economic life. I use a door-to-door field experiment where a hundred and twenty villagers recruited from twenty-three communities in a Japanese rural mountainous village play a simultaneous prisoner’s dilemma game. To examine whether a set of experiences shared through interactions among community members affect experimental behavior, I compare villagers’ behavior under in-community and out-community random matching protocols. I also report a counterpart laboratory experiment with seventy-two university student subjects to address the external validity of laboratory experiments. The findings are three-fold. First, almost full cooperation is achieved when villagers play a prisoner’s dilemma game with their anonymous community members. Second, cooperation is significantly higher within the in-group compared to the out-group treatment in both the laboratory and field experiments. Third, although a significant treatment effect of social group membership is preserved, a big difference in the average cooperation rates is observed between the laboratory and field.


1984 ◽  
Vol 55 (3) ◽  
pp. 687-696 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rick M. Gardner ◽  
Terry L. Corbin ◽  
Janelle S. Beltramo ◽  
Gary S. Nickell

Cooperation in pairs of rats playing the prisoner's dilemma game was investigated. Six pairs of animals were taught to make either cooperative or uncooperative responses by running to one or the other end of a T-maze. Two T-mazes were joined together such that animals could respond simultaneously. Animals were run under conditions in which visual communication was present and absent. Mutually uncooperative responses were the most common and mutually cooperative behaviors the least preferred. Introduction of a barrier between the mazes, which removed visual communication between pairs, sharply accentuated uncooperative behavior. Similarities of the present findings to results with human subjects and the implications of using game theory for studying cooperative behavior in animals are discussed.


Author(s):  
Xinting Hu ◽  
Mengyun Wu

In this paper, an improved evolutionary prisoner’s dilemma (PD) game model is proposed by considering the weighting effect. Taking into account individual’s perceived payoff (benefits), the evolutionary tendency of the cooperators and three equilibrium points of the proposed model are obtained. We then numerically investigate how different exterior and interior factors influence on individuals’ cooperative behavior and their payoff both in the ER random network and the BA scale-free network. Our results reveal that the heterogeneous network structure is conducive to cooperation. In addition, the existence of leader nodes is an important driving force for promoting individuals’ cooperation. By further analyzing the rationality coefficient which appears in the weighting function, we obtain that a greater of irrationality could lead more people to take cooperative strategies. Finally, two indicators which are used to measure the real average payoff and perceived average payoff are defined. The results show that the real average payoff and perceived average payoff are larger in the heterogeneity network than that in homogeneous network.


2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (7) ◽  
pp. 1156-1168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Maria C. Behler ◽  
Catherine S. J. Wall ◽  
Adriana Bos ◽  
Jeffrey D. Green

Two studies examined how envy influences prosocial and antisocial behavior. In Experiment 1, participants in an envious state (relative to a neutral state) were less helpful: They picked up fewer dropped pencils in their immediate vicinity. We expanded upon these findings by examining how envy affected both helping and harming behavior in a competitive scenario. In Experiment 2, individuals in envious or neutral states assigned puzzle tasks to another student in a prisoner’s dilemma style scenario. Prosocial and antisocial behaviors were assessed via the difficulty of the assigned puzzles (easy puzzles were considered helpful and difficult puzzles were harmful). We hypothesized that experiencing envy would result in greater motive to harm as well as greater likelihood of engaging in harmful behavior. The hypothesis was supported, suggesting that envy has detrimental ramifications that go beyond the individual and extend to interpersonal relationships.


2009 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 154-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hsiao-Chi Chen ◽  
Yunshyong Chow

In this paper we explore the impact of imitation rules on players' long-run behaviors in evolutionary prisoner's dilemma games. All players sit sequentially and equally spaced around a circle. Players are assumed to interact only with their neighbors, and to imitate either their successful neighbors and/or themselves or the successful actions taken by their neighbors and/or themselves. In the imitating-successful-player dynamics, full defection is the unique long-run equilibrium as the probability of players' experimentations (or mutations) tend to 0. By contrast, full cooperation could emerge in the long run under the imitating-successful-action dynamics. Moreover, it is discovered that the convergence rate to equilibrium under local interaction could be slower than that under global interaction.


2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (8) ◽  
pp. 1124-1137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satish Mehra ◽  
Joshua T. Coleman

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of successfully coordinating infrastructural capabilities, such as technology, and structural capabilities, such as people, on the performance of service businesses. Effective coordination of these two types of capabilities is shown to impact the implementation of quality management practices and the design of marketing strategy, both of which when utilized properly, lead to enhanced organizational performance. Design/methodology/approach The authors surveyed retail banking firms for this study to analyze empirical data on infrastructural and structural capabilities. Results were corroborated on the basis of in-depth interviews with several banking managers to provide real world verification of the findings. Findings Results indicate that both infrastructural and structural capabilities positively impact the design of marketing strategy, while only structural capabilities impact the implementation of quality management practices. Both, successfully implemented quality management ideals and a well-designed marketing strategy, are shown to enhance overall organizational performance. Research limitations/implications Research was conducted on a specific sector of the service industry, the banking sector. Also, the relatively small size of the study sample may have impacted the outcome of research applicability in some large businesses. Continuously emerging financial regulations could not be incorporated in the study. On the positive side, strong managerial feedback provides guidance toward adopting the study results, and lays the foundation for future research. Originality/value As today’s rapidly evolving society pushes people out of service encounters, replacing them with efficient and cost-saving technology, roles of both the people and the technology in an organization must be fully understood. This paper shows that, despite the exponential growth of technological innovation, both people and technology are critical to enhancing organizational performance through sound quality management practices and supportive marketing strategies.


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