Will Felps: ruining it for the rest of us

Question 1

3 kinds of (bad apple) behavior

Answer 1

• Jerk behavior (attacks and insults others)
  
  • Defining behaviors: ridiculing/insulting, making
    inappropriate religious or ethnic remarks, cursing,
    playing mean pranks, publicly embarrassing others
• Slacker behavior (does less than they can)
  
  • Defining behaviors: Shirking, free riding, social
    loafing
• Depressive pessimist behavior (violates norms of
  positivity)
  
  • Defining behaviors: Fail to engage in emotional
    regulation or emotional labor to uphold group
    functioning

Question 2

Effects of actor’s behavior in experiments

Answer 2

• Profound effect as groups that had actor showing bad
  apple behavior performed worse
• Dramatic effect on the way people in the groups
  treated each other
  
  • People would argue and fight
  • People would not share relevant information
  • People would communicate less
• Spillover effect showed as members started to take on the bad apple characteristics

Question 3

What was different about the group where the bad apple did not spoil the barrel?

Answer 3

• One guy was a particularly good leader (son of a
  diplomat)
• Leader had amazing diplomatic ability to defuse
  conflict that would normally emerge from bad apple
  behavior
• Leader would ask questions
• Leader would engage all team members and diffuse
  conflicts