Joris Voet, introducing himself, asks:
>This problem has been stated in different ways already during the
>discussions on "values and behaviour" in this group. What strikes me is
>that the following question is never being asked : "How does it come?"
>that behavior differs from what one wants (=values)? ( Or it may be that I
>have overlooked that part of the discussion).
>
>I have no answers, and I think that here we have a very important field to
>learn about : why do we human beings do the other thing than the one we
>want to do?
To put it into one context, and I am sure there are others, The Prisoners'
Dilemma is an extraordinarily interesting mathematical puzzle that sheds
light on this. Without getting into great detail, the issue is that in
many situations cooperation leads to a good pay-off for both participants,
but a betrayal by one person will lead to a better net payoff for that
person.
On the other hand, if these two people play the same game over and over,
the betrayer is punished for their behavior, and they learn not to betray.
On the third hand, in the real world, the betrayer can sometimes get away
with the betrayal simply because no one notices -- too much data to notice
one betrayal -- and therefore does not get punished. My guess is that
betrayal leads to a higher pay-off if one does not get caught, and the
betrayer hopes to avoid being noticed and punished.
This scenario certainly plays out in customer-supplier relationships in my
business.
--Rol Fessenden LL Bean, Inc. 76234.3636@compuserve.com
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>