A good introduction to the book “Freakonomics” would be that it explores the hidden side of everything through the eyes of two economists. This book essentially takes the rules of economics and applies it to some interesting problems in society.
The first chapter “What Do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers Have in Common?” tells us about the prevalent problem of cheating. It leads off exploring a study done in Israel about daycare and how many adults pick up their children late. The study starts off being normal and then some incentives are brought into the picture over a period of weeks. These incentives are to compel the parents of the children to not be late when they pick up their children. The first incentive put in place was a three dollar fine. This did not do much to curve the tardiness of parents. They found that if perhaps the fine had been ramped up to a relevant number such as one hundred dollars, it may make a difference in the amount of late pick-ups. This was the beginning example to illustrate how economic incentives can be place on people to achieve a certain objective or outcome. In this case it was the parent’s behavior that was the target of influence.
In the middle part of the chapter, the book goes into more descriptive details about the specific behavior of cheating. Similar to the daycare study in which some parents “cheated” their way out of picking up their children on time, some teachers have done something similar whit their students. More specifically a certain group of teachers within the Chicago area school district have been caught cheating to help their students do better on standardized testing. The government mandate that requires this was the “No Child Left behind act” enacted during the Bush administration. They boil the cheating down to two types, which is either the teacher changing their student’s answers or the teacher who gears their material towards direct test topics and/or questions. They create a computer algorithm to evaluate spikes in test scores and use it to identify the cheating teachers. Later on this information was applied to find those teachers who cheated and to expunge them from the school system.
In the last third of the chapter they link the cheating that the teachers were doing to sumo wrestlers. Now it may not appear that sumo wrestlers cheat, but in fact there is a lot of back room dealing that goes on according to the data within the book. “As it turns out, the data show that the 7-7 wrestlers win only 40 percent of the rematches. Eighty percent in one match and 40 percent in the next? The most logical explanation is that the wrestlers made a quid pro quo agreement.(Freakonomics pg43)” This type of data shows that the wrestlers indeed have been cheating and are continuing to do so. In the very last bit of the chapter, we have a contrasted view of the cheating that goes on in society. Paul Feldman an economists and former weapons budget analyst for the USA Navy gives us a good look at his bagel business. He had based his bagel business off of a goodwill system. The way it worked was that he would leave boxes for people to leave money in and then would deliver the bagels based on how much money was collected. He recorded his numbers meticulously and found that only a small percentage of companies would not pay him the minimum amount which was approximately 90 percent. This shows that not everyone in the world may cheat as we often do. It paints a picture of who is cheating and what characteristics they may have. His study was a turnaround from the previous two in depth reviews of the cheating that can occur within a system. This chapter relates heavily to the organizational behavior of people and how they may or may not cheat.
This whole chapter relates to organizational behavior on so many levels. We can start by exploring the economic incentive used to influence people. We are all influenced by incentives, every single day. We go to work so we can receive payment. We use that payment to survive and for personal enjoyment. We are incentivized not to break the law lest we end up in prison. Simple incentives that have been place within society. This leads me into the cheating that was explored in the chapter. I don’t believe this was discussed too much but the undertones are here. The incentives that may be put into place may also be used indirectly to entice people to cheat. So it is important that people have enough integrity about them to resist the urge to cheat and take the easy way out. Another part of what I found makes people more susceptible to cheating would be training. The amount of training that one receives may make the difference between a cheater and a normal person. So maybe integrating the amount of training and/or education about ethics into a specific work environment may help stave off cheating. In all cheating is a part of human nature, and it is always on the table when considering an objective or goal. It is just whether or not someone may seriously consider cheating as an option when they go to perform a task. We hope that most of the time the education and training when considering an organizational decision or behavior can help to mitigate cheating. This will make the organizational process more of an ethical environment in which the correct decisions and behaviors can be made and performed.
Work Cited
Levitt D. Steven, Dubner J. Stephen. “Freakonomics”. 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022: HarperCollins Publishers Inc, 2005, Print.
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