ejeem Open Access Journal

European Journal of Emerging Economics and Management

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Publication Frequency : 2 Issues per year.

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Sacrifice, Suffrage, and Sweat: An Experimental Analysis of Democratic Choice and Effort Provision in Teams

1 Department of Political Science, Central European University, Vienna, Austria
2 Behavioural Science Group, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry, United Kingdom

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Abstract

Getting people to pull together is one of the oldest challenges of teamwork. In any group, there's a temptation for individuals to slack off and free-ride on the efforts of others. While managers have tried countless ways to solve this problem, one of the most powerful tools might be one we often overlook: democracy. This study explores a simple but powerful idea: what happens when you let a team vote on its own work rules, especially a rule that involves a shared sacrifice? We designed a laboratory experiment where teams of people worked on a real task. Some teams had a costly, unproductive work requirement forced upon them. Others got to vote on whether to adopt that same rule. Our findings were clear. The act of democratically choosing to make a sacrifice dramatically increased the team's productivity—far more than when the rule was simply imposed. It seems that collective choice builds a sense of commitment and legitimacy that helps people overcome the urge to free-ride. This research shows how democratic processes can be a practical tool for aligning individual and group goals, offering fresh insights for how we think about motivation, contracts, and management.


Keywords

Free-riding, Workplace Democracy, Team Production, Costly Signaling

References

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Araujo, F. A., Carbone, E., Conell‐Price, L., Dunietz, M. W., Jaroszewicz, A., Landsman, R., Lamé, D., Vesterlund, L., Wang, S. W., & Wilson, A. J. (2016). The slider task: An example of restricted inference on incentive effects. Journal of the Economic Science Association, 2, 1–12.

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How to Cite

Sacrifice, Suffrage, and Sweat: An Experimental Analysis of Democratic Choice and Effort Provision in Teams. (2024). European Journal of Emerging Economics and Management, 1(01), 53-59. https://parthenonfrontiers.com/index.php/ejeem/article/view/57

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