The bagel hockey case outlined a scenario that combined a cohesive group of young adults, too much free time, and too little management. The cafeteria manager, Mrs. Larby, made an unannounced weekend visit to the cafeteria and found her employees violating one of the business rules of no horseplay. When she walked in on a busy cafeteria, only a couple of employees were functioning in their roles while the rest were playing floor hockey with brooms and stale bagels in the back, including the supervisor on shift (Cohen & Fink, 2001).
Causes of Emergent Behavior
It is clear that there is an increase in free time on the weekend shifts because the business flow is not as steady as it is during the weekdays. This has caused …show more content…
Larby has created a group connection with these employees and they feel comfortable enough to joke and have some fun with her, as long as her boss is not around.This may be one of the reasons that the employees feel comfortable enough to play these games while at work. The group cohesiveness has its pros and cons. The benefits include group cooperation with little issue and ability to rotate roles throughout the work day to break up the monotonous work. However, the exclusiveness of the group has added a level of desire to be included, even if it means performing duties while others free load. Emerged behavior has brought a level of competiveness to the group, creating various work games during the weekend shifts (Cohen & Fink, 2001).
Consequences of Emergent …show more content…
As the games involve food, it does produce an amount of unnecessary waste each week. Although the products may be relatively cheap or unusable at that point, the costs do slowly add up. It also puts a level of concern over the quality of the food being served to the customers, especially if the eggs used in “King of the Eggs” are “destined for the egg salad (Cohen & Fink, 2001). It also raises the question of the salaries being paid to the employees that are playing these games while on the clock and if the amount of employees is necessary for this shift. When the business picks up sporadically during the shift, the burden of the work falls to those who choose not to or were unable play the games. The set up does not allow for easy communication between the group without adding more stress to the employees assisting the customers. This effect reaches the customers because it results in longer wait times, which could eventually result in a decrease in business and business profits (Cohen & Fink,