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Why peers engage in costly control of free riding: Evidence from a mixed-methods study
Type
conference paper
Date Issued
2018-07
Author(s)
Abstract
In knowledge-intensive teamwork, control of free riding strongly relies on the team members themselves, since for supervisors, individual contributions to the team outcome are difficult to specify, monitor and enforce. However, peer control involves costs for the controller and likewise benefits other non-controlling team members, thus, constituting a second-order social dilemma. In this article, we study how this dilemma can be overcome. To this end, we examine the reasons why peers choose to engage in costly control. We first summarize the existing knowledge on reasons for costly control in the light of a theoretical model of decision-making in social dilemma situations followed by an empirical mixed-methods research design including both an inductive qualitative and a scenario-based quantitative study. The results support our theoretical assumption that costly control relies on the subjective utility peers attach to their control actions. Specifically, we find situational, norm-related and personality factors to affect such utility assessments. Among these factors, we find six to increase and one to decrease actors’ perceived utility of peer control. Drivers are: (1) actors have a cooperative personality, (2) actors are achievement motivated, (3) actors are directly negatively affected by the free riding, (4) team performance suffers from the free riding, (5) an external problem solution is not foreseeable, and (6) free rider severely violates collaboration norms. Hinderer is: (7) actors have a conflict avoiding personality. Contrary to our hypotheses, we found injustice sensitivity and social support to have no significant effect on costly control. Contributions and limitations are discussed.
Keywords: Peer control, free riding, second-order social dilemma
Keywords: Peer control, free riding, second-order social dilemma
Language
English
Event Title
34th Colloquium of the European Group for Organizational Studies (EGOS)
Event Location
Tallinn, Estonia
Event Date
July 5-7, 2018
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
254652