IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v81y2017icp70-79.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does pulling together lead to falling apart? The self-regulatory consequences of cooperative orientations for the self-reliant

Author

Listed:
  • Schultz, Ainslie E.
  • Lamberton, Cait
  • Nielsen, Jesper H.

Abstract

Much evidence exists to support the hypothesis that cooperation improves performance outcomes for both organizations and individuals. In spite of this, relatively little attention has been paid to the potential downstream consequences of asking self-reliant individuals to work and pursue goals in a team setting, where their success depends heavily on cooperation and the performance of others. This paper explores these downstream consequences. Across three studies, our results reveal that individuals prompted with self-reliance lose significant self-regulatory capacity after cooperating as opposed to competing individually, which leads them to act dishonestly (Experiments 1 and 3) and quit a task early (Experiment 2). Together, these findings highlight that cooperation, despite the performance advantages it offers teams, can also contribute to unforeseen costs for highly self-reliant individuals.

Suggested Citation

  • Schultz, Ainslie E. & Lamberton, Cait & Nielsen, Jesper H., 2017. "Does pulling together lead to falling apart? The self-regulatory consequences of cooperative orientations for the self-reliant," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 70-79.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:81:y:2017:i:c:p:70-79
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.07.012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296317302400
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.07.012?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin G. Kocher & Peter Martinsson & Kristian Ove R. Myrseth & Conny E. Wollbrant, 2017. "Strong, bold, and kind: self-control and cooperation in social dilemmas," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 20(1), pages 44-69, March.
    2. Myrseth, Kristian Ove R. & Riener, Gerhard & Wollbrant, Conny, 2013. "Tangible temptation in the social dilemma : cash, cooperation, and self-control," Borradores Departamento de Economía 17489, Universidad de Antioquia, CIE.
    3. Kagel, John & McGee, Peter, 2014. "Personality and cooperation in finitely repeated prisoner’s dilemma games," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 124(2), pages 274-277.
    4. Mead, N.L. & Baumeister, R.F. & Gino, F. & Schweitzer, M.E. & Ariely, D., 2009. "Too tired to tell the truth : Self-control resource depletion and dishonesty," Other publications TiSEM c60167a3-c3aa-4b83-9192-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    5. Brito, Luiz Artur Ledur & Brito, Eliane Pereira Zamith & Hashiba, Luciana Harumi, 2014. "What type of cooperation with suppliers and customers leads to superior performance?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(5), pages 952-959.
    6. Aime, Federico & Meyer, Christopher J. & Humphrey, Stephen E., 2010. "Legitimacy of team rewards: Analyzing legitimacy as a condition for the effectiveness of team incentive designs," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 60-66, January.
    7. Peter P J L Verkoeijen & Samantha Bouwmeester, 2014. "Does Intuition Cause Cooperation?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(5), pages 1-8, May.
    8. Gianna Lotito & Matteo Migheli & Guido Ortona, 2013. "Is cooperation instinctive? Evidence from the response times in a public goods game," Journal of Bioeconomics, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 123-133, July.
    9. Lohse, Johannes & Goeschl, Timo & Diederich , Johannes, 2014. "Giving is a question of time: Response times and contributions to a real world public good," Working Papers 0566, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    10. Gino, Francesca & Schweitzer, Maurice E. & Mead, Nicole L. & Ariely, Dan, 2011. "Unable to resist temptation: How self-control depletion promotes unethical behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 115(2), pages 191-203, July.
    11. Don Y. Lee & Eric W. K. Tsang, 2001. "The effects of entrepreneurial personality, background and network activities on venture growth," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(4), pages 583-602, June.
    12. Shefrin, Hersh & Nicols, Christina M., 2014. "Credit card behavior, financial styles, and heuristics," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(8), pages 1679-1687.
    13. Janssen, Loes & Fennis, Bob M. & Pruyn, Ad Th.H. & Vohs, Kathleen D., 2008. "The path of least resistance: Regulatory resource depletion and the effectiveness of social influence techniques," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(10), pages 1041-1045, October.
    14. David G. Rand & Alexander Peysakhovich & Gordon T. Kraft-Todd & George E. Newman & Owen Wurzbacher & Martin A. Nowak & Joshua D. Greene, 2014. "Social heuristics shape intuitive cooperation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-12, May.
    15. Derek D. Rucker & Adam D. Galinsky, 2008. "Desire to Acquire: Powerlessness and Compensatory Consumption," Journal of Consumer Research, Oxford University Press, vol. 35(2), pages 257-267, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ainslie E. Schultz & Kevin P. Newman & Scott A. Wright, 2023. "The Negative Effect of Low Belonging on Consumer Responses to Sustainable Products," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 187(3), pages 473-492, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Martin G. Kocher & Peter Martinsson & Kristian Ove R. Myrseth & Conny E. Wollbrant, 2017. "Strong, bold, and kind: self-control and cooperation in social dilemmas," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 20(1), pages 44-69, March.
    2. Martinsson, Peter & Myrseth, Kristian Ove R. & Wollbrant, Conny, 2014. "Social dilemmas: When self-control benefits cooperation," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 213-236.
    3. Goeschl, Timo & Lohse, Johannes, 2018. "Cooperation in public good games. Calculated or confused?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 107(C), pages 185-203.
    4. repec:cup:judgdm:v:10:y:2015:i:3:p:277-279 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Kristian Ove R. Myrseth & Conny Wollbrant, 2015. "Less cognitive conflict does not imply choice of the default option: Commentary on Kieslich and Hilbig (2014)," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 10(3), pages 277-279, May.
    6. Achtziger, Anja & Alós-Ferrer, Carlos & Wagner, Alexander K., 2016. "The impact of self-control depletion on social preferences in the ultimatum game," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 1-16.
    7. Merkel, Anna & Lohse, Johannes, 2016. "Is fairness intuitive? An experiment accounting for the role of subjective utility differences under time pressure," Working Papers 0627, University of Heidelberg, Department of Economics.
    8. Anna Louisa Merkel & Johannes Lohse, 2019. "Is fairness intuitive? An experiment accounting for subjective utility differences under time pressure," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 22(1), pages 24-50, March.
    9. Recalde, María P. & Riedl, Arno & Vesterlund, Lise, 2018. "Error-prone inference from response time: The case of intuitive generosity in public-good games," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 132-147.
    10. Lohse, Tim & Simon, Sven A. & Konrad, Kai A., 2018. "Deception under time pressure: Conscious decision or a problem of awareness?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 31-42.
    11. Johannes Lohse & Timo Goeschl & Johannes H. Diederich, 2017. "Giving is a Question of Time: Response Times and Contributions to an Environmental Public Good," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 67(3), pages 455-477, July.
    12. Akihiro Nishi & Nicholas A Christakis & David G Rand, 2017. "Cooperation, decision time, and culture: Online experiments with American and Indian participants," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(2), pages 1-9, February.
    13. Dickinson, David L. & Masclet, David, 2023. "Unethical decision making and sleep restriction: Experimental evidence," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 484-502.
    14. Leonidas Spiliopoulos & Andreas Ortmann, 2018. "The BCD of response time analysis in experimental economics," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 21(2), pages 383-433, June.
    15. David L. Dickinson & David Masclet, 2021. "Unethical Decision Making and Sleep Restriction: Experimental Evidence," Working Papers 21-09, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
    16. Pascal J. Kieslich & Benjamin E. Hilbig, 2014. "Cognitive conflict in social dilemmas: An analysis of response dynamics," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 9(6), pages 510-522, November.
    17. Brice Corgnet & Antonio M. Espín & Roberto Hernán-González, 2015. "The cognitive basis of social behavior: cognitive reflection overrides antisocial but not always prosocial motives," Working Papers 15-04, Chapman University, Economic Science Institute.
    18. Mischkowski, Dorothee & Glöckner, Andreas & Lewisch, Peter, 2018. "From spontaneous cooperation to spontaneous punishment – Distinguishing the underlying motives driving spontaneous behavior in first and second order public good games," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 59-72.
    19. repec:cup:judgdm:v:9:y:2014:i:6:p:510-522 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Fadong Chen & Urs Fischbacher, 2020. "Cognitive processes underlying distributional preferences: a response time study," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 23(2), pages 421-446, June.
    21. Gill, David & Prowse, Victoria & Vlassopoulos, Michael, 2013. "Cheating in the workplace: An experimental study of the impact of bonuses and productivity," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 120-134.
    22. Marie Claire Villeval, 2019. "Comportements (non) éthiques et stratégies morales," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 70(6), pages 1021-1046.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:81:y:2017:i:c:p:70-79. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.