Applying Conformity in a Working Organisation - Research Paper Example

Applying Conformity Pressure In A Small Organization Abstract The report deals with the experiment conducted by Solomon Asch. The case was dealing with questions given to the staff of the organization for getting their views on certain aspects on accepting negativity due to conformity pressure. The answers obtained individually on a private basis were all correct but when they were asked openly in front of the other staff members then the actual candidate gave the wrong answer because of the incorrect answers pressure which was given by the confederates. Arguments are given related with the theories as to why the candidates may behave in this way. Group influence and pressure tends to affect the decisions made by certain individuals and they may tend to change their answers based on the majority of the same answers that has been received by the candidates. Conclusion and future considerations are discussed at the end of the report. Table of Contents Abstract 1 Solomon Asch experiment 5 Leadership Issues 7 Job satisfaction 9 Self Confidence 9 Questionnaire Analysis 10 Conclusion 11 Future Consideration 12 References 14 Appendix 15 Applying Conformity Pressure to a small Organization Conformity Study By various authors conformity may be defined or identified as the group members of accepting the answers based on being similar and also being dependent on the other answers received by other staff or group members. This conformity issue has gained wide acceptance on an individual and mass level. The need for conformity is an essential need by the majority of humans. At times everyone wants to know what the other person suggests and they have the hunch feeling that the logic of others may be correct. Conformity basically means going with the norms of the group so that everyone can be accepted in their gatherings and surroundings. On a personal level it may not have that much of a negative impact as it may have at an organizational level. With the issue of conformity, one’s own level of responsibility and self confidence about their knowledge tends to be heavily affected. Employee may lose their confidence of being sure about their answers while being in groups and instead of developing their strengths on taking the right decisions they may be resistant or unsure about the opinions and suggestions they give. The issue on conformity can be thought about in useful ways for many instances. It should be kept in knowledge though, situations and circumstances may tend to be different while applying conformity. Brockner et. al (1987) have conducted the research on the brain activities of the candidates and they have observed the results consisting of those that were made in a group and those results that were given individually by the candidates. Similar analysis was achieved with those of the Asch’s experiments. The bottom line is group influence affects the candidates decisions and they may fall for the false traps easily. The research of Bern’s supports the idea of having a social influence on the employees or the candidates on any test that they will have negative emotions when they go against the group answers. While considering individuality, and the concept of individualism, every individual wants to be unique and wants to give suggestions that are different from the rest. The struggle to be special for the individuals is an utmost necessity for people. Hawthorne studies also depict this theory, that the most important thing for individuals is the feeling of being important in their surroundings. Researchers have discovered the primary traits that help in defining the personality traits on the individual basis, and the traits discovered proved to be quite powerful in understanding the complex behavior patterns of individuals and how they make their decisions on the workplace (Ashton 1998). The conformity experiments conducted by Solomon Asch are basically a study series in which the power of consensus agreement is demonstrated in groups. The experiments show that while the individual may know the correct answer, he or she may be heavily influenced by the other group members or the other candidates in a testing procedure and hence they may feel that others are right. With this confusion, a larger margin is given to the other members and the individual feel that he or she may be wrong and they give those answers which are said by majority of the group members. In organization tests this may be not prove to be so costly but at a more larger level, decisions that impact the financial position of the organization may be quite costly if wrong conformity decisions are taken by the employees. Solomon Asch experiment The Solomon Asch experiment basically consisted of a vision test. There were about 8 or 9 students selected for the experiment. All of the students selected were confederates of the experimenter except one of the students who was actually being tested. The study was basically to analyze how the one genuine student of the test would react to the answers given by the confederates. The behavior of the confederates tends to have a strong influence on the student for whom the test is actually being conducted for. The confederates and the genuine student were all made to be seated in a classroom. Their test was basically to tell the judgment of the length of many lines that were drawn in a series in front of them. The lines that were displayed to the candidates were of different sizes. The main question that was asked to the candidates was to answer which was the longest line and which lines were of a similar length. The confederates who had been selected by the experimenter were all told to give the incorrect answers to the test before the actual candidate answers. When the confederates answer before the actual candidate then this causes confusion for the actual candidate and he or she may get confused while giving the answer. When the confederates started giving wrong answers then this caused extreme confusion and discomfort in the mind of the actual candidate and he became confused about his answer which he was going to submit. As he constantly observed that all the confederates were giving the same incorrect answer then he doubted his answer even more. Majority of the confederates gave the answers that the two different lines that were different by quite a lot inches were regarded as same by the confederates. Obviously, the candidates were the control subjects and they gave the incorrect answers with full confidence and confirmation that their answers were hundred percent correct. The challenge faced by the majority on the issue of workplace conformity has gained considerable attention since quite some time. Many researches have been done on the pressure that employees face while working in groups. How the individual decisions tend to change with the influence of other group members. This phenomenon may be faced by almost everyone, that those decisions which have the vote of majority of the group members seems to be right for the situation. The utmost concern with the conformity issue in the workplaces is that the phenomenon of the employees of “fitting in” in the group has to be eliminated. If employees start making decisions with those that are in conformity then this may tend to cost the organization heavy losses if those decisions are wrong in any case. Martin (2001) states that employees may not tend to develop their strengths if they get influenced by decisions that are taken by majority in the groups. Employees need to be assured that they have to make the right decisions or agree to the points where the decisions are considered appropriate. Leadership Issues Forceful agreement to issues should not be present among the workplace under any circumstance. The leadership traits of the employees also may tend to get affected if the decisions taken are wrong. As it is said leaders are born. So, born leaders need to be polished with their skills, gradually with time. If they get trapped in the wrong decisions due to conformity then this may give a negative impact on their skills. They may not be able to take spontaneous decisions in the future because at the back of their minds they may have this feeling then their answers or decisions which they take may be wrong to a certain extent. Inefficient agreements may affect our thinking and working abilities. We need to know where we are the best at and what we know with full confidence is right. One should always stand out from the crowd if he or she knows that whatever answers or decisions they have taken is correct and they are fully confident about it. The decisions or suggestions which any individual make is on the knowledge which they have achieved in that field, the decisions have some logic and it can always be justified but if the individual is influenced by the rest then there are chances that the employee may change their decisions at the last minute. Smith and Bond (1996) have conducted a meta- analysis on the conformity issue and they have conducted the research on a number of replications. According to their study, it has been observed that the level of conformity increases when there are approximately three confederates present in the group and it may increase to a maximum level of ten to fifteen confederates present, but not more than that. These statistics are based on a recent research carried out on the confederates. The confederates have to pose themselves as they are actually genuinely appearing in the test. The actual candidate should not get any clue as to figure out that the other candidates sitting with him are confederates and not the real ones. If the influence of conformity is taking place in the group then fifteen other confederates insisting on the same result will definitely change the answer of the actual candidate. Constant same replies of the confederates tend to confirm that the answer which the actual candidate gives may be wrong. It’s a basic act of judgment from contextual scenario. Peer pressure tends to affect a person negatively and the person may be forced to change the decisions for just the mere reason of being accepted in the group by all the rest of the members. Job satisfaction With the results of the conformity issue the employees may feel de-motivated about working on their job. They may not achieve that level of job satisfaction which they should. They would feel that the job they are performing are not up to the level of requirement. They’ll tend to be more sceptic about the incentives provided to them and will look forward to switching jobs because conformity may have affected their job satisfaction level immensely. Self Confidence Self confidence takes up a lot of time for some people to develop within themselves. For others, self confidence may come to them naturally. Any negative aspect or behavior may tend to impact the self confidence of the person and in this case if the conformity issue acts in a negative manner to the employees then they may start losing their self confidence over many other issues. Conformity Influence: 1. When situation is ambiguous When the employee is unsure about the situation which he or she is facing then they may feel quite ambiguous of the decisions they are taking and they may tend to for sure conform to the decisions of the other group members. They may strongly believe that the decision or the answer they take is not genuine. 2. When situation is in a crisis Other situation when the employee or anyone for sure will conform to the decisions of the majority is when they are facing a crisis situation. Many people don’t tend to make the right decisions when they panic. Chaos situations tends to make the mind stop working for many people and they are readily willing to listen to the other members decisions who are all facing crisis. 3. When other people are experts Lastly, the people may get strongly influenced and conform to the decisions taken by the majority when they know that the other people in their surroundings are experts. Experts normally tend to be more confident and they take decisions according to the vast experience which they have gained with the passage of time. Questionnaire Analysis The questionnaire that is used for the experimentation in this case is to maintain safety precautions in the workplace while using the equipments. The confederates that were planted constantly gave wrong answers while they were together in the group but individually all the candidates answered the paper correctly. This just proves that group influence was quite a lot on the actual candidate and the incorrect answers of the confederate forced the actual to give the wrong answer. The questions that are asked have very obvious correct answers. Most of them are common sense answers, like the question related on safety or the question that is asked on the weight of the person. These answers do not need a lot of logic. Other specific questions are also easy for the people who have the knowledge on the equipment of harness. Basically what is being said is that the questions were quite easy for the candidates to answer, but as the confederates were planted in the group and also they were outnumbering the actual candidates on a large basis, that is why the actual candidate fell for the trap and started giving the incorrect answers as those of the confederates. This just proves that even if the candidates are thoroughly trained in the standard operating procedures of the organization, they may still tend to make mistakes due to the conformity that may arise while working in groups. The standard operating procedures for the organization are vividly explained to the employees once they join the organization. It is made sure that the employees are extremely clear on whatever has been explained to them but still as we can observe that the conformity plays an extremely negative role at times and the employees may fall for the wrong decisions which have been given by none other than the confederates. Conclusion On a concluding note, it can be observed from the analysis that the issue of conformity in the workplace tends to affect the workplace situations and also the employee behavior. Employee motivation and the confidence to carry out their tasks also tend to be affected because of the issue of being associated with the conformity of the other employees working in the organization. The theory of Solomon Asch may be applicable in other situations also instead of just the workplace. The experiment depicts the fact that group pressure has a strong effect and it can be implemented on both personal and professional grounds. People and employees of the organization need to develop the feeling of strong commitment with themselves and the workplace. They should not have the negative influence of their co workers or their colleagues while answering any question, or while giving any suggestion. Different types of trainings and workshops need to be conducted for the workforce so that they perform their duties well and with full confidence throughout their stay in the organization. Future Consideration On future consideration, the issue of conformity should be openly dealt with. Organizations should conduct training sessions on educating their employees and creating awareness that it is not necessary that the other group members or even the majority of the group members may always be right. Everyone has the knowledge about the scope of field where they are working and they have the ability to give the correct answers based on their logic and observation. They should not follow others simply because the other answer is being said by majority of the candidates. So it is an utmost necessity to conduct training sessions based on the conformity in the workplace. With the help of trainings many people and employees will get benefited, and it will be in their notice that majorities are not always right. If one has the knowledge and the logic to justify their answer then they should under all means stick to their answer instead of just easily giving away to the answers of others. When taking decisions that require conformity of the other members, it should be taken utmost care that only experts and self confident employees are selected for the decisions and it should be done without any biasness of any member. References Asch, S. E. (1956). Studies of independence and conformity: A minority of one against a unanimous majority. Psychological Monographs, 70. Ashton, M.C. (1998) ‘Personality and job performance: The importance of narrow traits’, Journal of Organizational Behavior, 19: 289–303. Brockner J, Grover S, Reed T, DeWitt R, O'Malley M. (1987). Survivors' Reactions to Layoffs: We Get By With a Little Help From Our Friends. Administrative Science Quarterly, 32: 526-542 Bond, R. and Smith, P. B. (1996.) Culture and Conformity: A Meta-Analysis of Studies Using Asch's (1952b, 1956) Line Judgment Task.  Psychological Bulletin, 119, 111-137. Martin, J. (2001). Organizational Behaviour. Second Edition, Thomson Learning, London. Appendix Questionnaire: 1) In a safety briefing what is the next step after a short-self introduction? a) Introduction of equipment (harness and helmet). b) Map coverage c) Tarzan attachment 2) Participants putting on ______ will not be allowed on the course. a) Sports sandals exposing toes b) Crocs without back strap c) Sports shoes 3) Most important aspect of fitting a harness is? a) Tightening the leg loops b) Tightening the waist loop c) Securing the excess strap to the retainer 4) Can a participant whose weight is 135kg be allowed to go up on the course after perfectly fitting into a harness? a) Yes b) No 5) During bad weather, and the siren has gone off, do we still continue with activities? a) Yes .proceed with caution and wait until base informs us to evacuate. b) No. Immediately evacuate all participants off the course. c) Yes. Just ensure the participants that it is safe to continue all activities as per normal. Read More