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Risky shift

 

Explanations > Groups > Risky shift

Description | Discussion | See also

 

Description

Groups and team sometimes take unusually high risk decisions. And sometimes they take unusually low risk decisions. In particular the risk taken is noticeably greater or lower than individuals in the team would normally choose. It is as if they have lost their ability to assess risk.

Discussion

What appears to be happening here is that critical change is occurring in the personal perception of the transfer of risk, based on beliefs and concern for the group. Risk homeostasis says that we each have a preferred level of risk and will hence be relatively consistent in our risk-taking, yet what actually happens is that we assess risk based on perception more than reality, which means that the actual risk we may take on might vary significantly. 

If I care about others in the group and seek to sustain group cohesion then I may feel responsible for the risk taken by other group members. I thus might personally take on the risk of others, increasing my felt risk and leading me to seek lower-risk decisions. If influential people or the majority of group members feel this way then group decisions will be less risky.

On the other hand, if I feel that I am are sharing my personal risk with others (and hence lessening my personal risk-taking) then I will be more inclined to take gung-ho high-risk decisions. Again, the extent to which this happens will depend on the dynamic of influence within the group.

This principle may also explain a similar phenomenon that occurs in hierarchical management situations. Managers are responsible for a wider scope of activity than individuals, which they share out with their subordinates. But what happens to the perceived risk? For the manager to sustain their personal risk limit they have to either let go of the perception, truly transferring the risk to the subordinate, or otherwise act to reduce the risk in some way. Both of these approaches can become dysfunctional, resulting in what may be considered as poor management.

If I 'let go', transferring risk to subordinates, I need to feel it is their risk and not mine. To do this I must ensure I am relatively blameless in the event of failure and so might distance myself from them, providing them little support and preparing to punish them if they fail. I might, for example, claim I am 'empowering' them or complain to my manager and others of the incompetence of my staff. At worst I might give them work that is doomed to failure and them sack them when the inevitable happens.

On the other hand, managers might try to reduce risk by managing their subordinates more closely, setting goals and requiring regular reports. Sometimes called 'micro-management', this also helps satisfy the need for a sense of control.

Another, perhaps more canny method is to manage external perceptions by projecting high levels of apparent risk upwards and outwards whilst actually sustaining relatively lower risk work, thus reducing personal risk of being judged as a failure when risks do occur.

Games of shifting risk also extend to third-party arrangements, for example in outsourcing and general use of suppliers. One of the key reasons why companies ask others to do work is to shift the associated risks of this activity.

Once this arrangement is made, the company, perceiving an apparent reduction in risk, may 'up the ante', for example by putting extra load on the supplier with demands for shorter timescales, lower costs and changes in requirement. This may significantly increase the risk of failure, but the company's managers don't see it as their risk. Meanwhile, the game may continue with the supplying company shifting the risk again, perhaps to a sub-supplier or perhaps back up to the first company through a pre-emptive get-out clause in the contract.

An alternative (and sometimes additional) scenario occurs when the original company's managers realize that their customers and senior managers will blame any failure on them. The company's managers have relatively little understanding or control over what happens at the supplier and thus perceive an increase in risk. A typical response to this is to seek greater control, with more reviews, meetings, metrics and general attempts to gain more control over the supplier's operation, much as the individual manager resorts to micro-management. Again the supplier may well fight back against this intrusion that might increase their costs and likelihood of failure.

 

See also

 

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Site Menu

| Home | Top | Quick Links | Settings |

Main sections: | Disciplines | Techniques | Principles | Explanations | Theories |

Other sections: | Blog! | Quotes | Guest articles | Analysis | Books | Help |

More pages: | Contact | Caveat | About | Students | Webmasters | Awards | Guestbook | Feedback | Sitemap | Changes |

Settings: | Computer layout | Mobile layout | Small font | Medium font | Large font | Translate |

 

 

Please help and share:

 

Quick links

Disciplines

* Argument
* Brand management
* Change Management
* Coaching
* Communication
* Counseling
* Game Design
* Human Resources
* Job-finding
* Leadership
* Marketing
* Politics
* Propaganda
* Rhetoric
* Negotiation
* Psychoanalysis
* Sales
* Sociology
* Storytelling
* Teaching
* Warfare
* Workplace design

Techniques

* Assertiveness
* Body language
* Change techniques
* Closing techniques
* Conversation
* Confidence tricks
* Conversion
* Creative techniques
* General techniques
* Happiness
* Hypnotism
* Interrogation
* Language
* Listening
* Negotiation tactics
* Objection handling
* Propaganda
* Problem-solving
* Public speaking
* Questioning
* Using repetition
* Resisting persuasion
* Self-development
* Sequential requests
* Storytelling
* Stress Management
* Tipping
* Using humor
* Willpower

Principles

+ Principles

Explanations

* Behaviors
* Beliefs
* Brain stuff
* Conditioning
* Coping Mechanisms
* Critical Theory
* Culture
* Decisions
* Emotions
* Evolution
* Gender
* Games
* Groups
* Habit
* Identity
* Learning
* Meaning
* Memory
* Motivation
* Models
* Needs
* Personality
* Power
* Preferences
* Research
* Relationships
* SIFT Model
* Social Research
* Stress
* Trust
* Values

Theories

* Alphabetic list
* Theory types

And

About
Guest Articles
Blog!
Books
Changes
Contact
Guestbook
Quotes
Students
Webmasters

 

| Home | Top | Menu | Quick Links |

© Changing Works 2002-
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