The world's funniest economics stories

Chapter 33 Good business depends not on collisions but on skills (3)
The broken window effect is an understanding of the suggestive or inductive influence of the environment on people's psychology.It first appeared in the first section of Claude Frederick Bastiat's essay "The Visible and the Unseen", for which he is known as the "Father of Broken Windows".

The broken window effect theory means that if someone breaks the window glass of a building, and this window cannot be repaired in time, others may be given some implied connivance to break more windows.

In daily life, we often have this experience: if some graffiti on a wall is not cleaned off, the wall will soon be covered with messy and unsightly things; and in a very clean place, people will be very It is embarrassing to throw rubbish, once there is rubbish on the ground, people will litter everywhere without hesitation, without feeling ashamed at all; the belongings on the table and the open door may make people greedy without greed; for The relevant departments did not deal with the violation of the company's procedures or regulations seriously, and did not attract the attention of the employees, so that similar behaviors occurred again or even repeatedly...

In management practice, managers must be highly alert to those "small faults" that seem to be individual and minor, but violate the company's core values, and insist on strict management according to the law. "A dike of a thousand miles collapses in an ant's nest."Failure to repair the first shattered window in time can cause irreparable damage.

The origin of the broken window effect, Philip Zimbardo, a psychologist at Stanford University in the United States, conducted an experiment in 1969.He found two identical cars and parked one in a middle-class neighborhood in Palo Alto, California, and the other in the less sprawling Bronx, New York.The one parked in the Bronx, which he took off the license plate and left the roof on, was stolen that same day.The one in Palo Alto was ignored for a week.Later, Simbadu used a hammer to knock a big hole in the glass of the car.As a result, after only a few hours, it was gone.

Based on this experiment, political scientist Wilson and criminologist Carin proposed a theory of "broken window effect", thinking that if someone breaks the glass of the window and does not get timely repairs, others may break it. More windows rot.Over time, these broken windows created a sense of disorder.As a result, in this climate of public insensitivity, crime thrives and thrives.

7. Why don't children come to play--incentive system

Here is a very interesting story.

A very quiet old man chose a place to live in a beautiful suburban environment, for which he felt very satisfied.However, a group of children would come here at noon every day.Playing hide-and-seek in the bushes, frolicking by the river, every day these children would make noise until late.

The old man who likes to be quiet hates these children very much. He doesn't want such children to destroy his originally comfortable living environment.But he thought that if the children were directly kicked out, the children who were at a rebellious age would not listen to him, and it would have the opposite effect.After thinking about it, the old man finally came up with a good solution.

On this day, he came to the children and said to them: "Children, I am very happy that you come to accompany me. From now on, I will give each of you 5 yuan a day." The children were very happy.

A few days later, the old man came to the children again and said to them: "From now on, I can only give you 1 yuan each day." The children were a little surprised and unhappy, but they still reluctantly accepted.

A few more days passed like this.On this day, the old man stood in front of the window and said to the children who came forward: "From now on, I can only give you 1 dime each day." We're never coming back."

Since then, the old man has really lived a comfortable and peaceful life.

From an economic point of view, if the behavior of the old man giving money to the children is regarded as an incentive for the children, and the child accepts the money from the old man for the purpose of gaining personal benefits.Then when the old man's incentive to the children gradually decreases, the children think that their own interests have been damaged, so they don't want to accompany the old man again.

From the perspective of the children, it has become a monetary incentive to come to play because the old man gives money, and when the incentive is reduced, they will be very annoyed.It can be said that the wise old man successfully used counter-incentives to achieve his goal of living a quiet life.

Incentive system, also known as incentive mechanism, is a set of rational system to reflect the interaction between incentive subject and incentive object.The connotation of the incentive mechanism is the element that constitutes this system.

A system that unifies personal interests with the overall interests of the organization, allowing individuals to realize the overall interests of the organization while realizing their own interests, is an incentive mechanism.

Once the incentive mechanism is formed, it will internally act on the organizational system itself, make the organizational function in a certain state, and further affect the survival and development of the organization.

In the case of a certain ability, the level of motivation will determine the size of their work performance.Comprehensive use of various incentive methods is a magic weapon to effectively improve the incentive level.Whether the incentive mechanism has an impact depends on whether the incentive method can meet the needs of the individual.The main incentive methods include the following:
Material incentives: Stimulate people's enthusiasm and creativity by satisfying the needs of personal interests.The realization of the material incentive effect should be guaranteed by the corresponding system. It must be fair and egalitarianism should not be practiced. Only those with outstanding achievements should be rewarded. Otherwise, it will not only encourage the laziness of the laggards, but also hurt the hard work motivation of the outstanding ones, thus losing incentives meaning.

Spiritual motivation: Intrinsic motivation refers to the intangible spiritual motivation, which mainly mobilizes the enthusiasm of individuals at a higher level by satisfying the needs of individual self-esteem, self-development and self-realization.Spiritual incentives mainly include target incentives, honor incentives, emotional incentives, trust incentives, and respect incentives.

Task incentives: Let individuals shoulder heavy responsibilities commensurate with their talents, and the society provides opportunities for individuals to achieve and develop to satisfy their ambition and sense of accomplishment.

Data incentives: Obvious data will have an obvious impression on people and stimulate strong motivation.Data incentive is to reflect the behavior results of each person in the form of numerical comparison, so as to motivate the progress and spur the backward.

Reinforcement incentives: affirmation of good behaviors, that is, positive reinforcement, so that they can continue to be maintained; negative reinforcement is given to negative behaviors, so that they can remember lessons and never make the same mistakes again.

The incentive mechanism has the effect of repeatedly strengthening and continuously strengthening the behavior of individuals that meet the expectations of the organization. Under the action of such an incentive mechanism, the organization continues to grow and grow.

In addition, although the original intention of the incentive mechanism designer is to effectively mobilize the enthusiasm of individuals and achieve the goals of the organization through the operation of the incentive mechanism, whether the incentive mechanism itself is not perfect or the incentive mechanism is not feasible, it will affect the The enthusiasm of some people inhibits and weakens, which is the weakening effect of the incentive mechanism.

The two-factor theory, that is, the hygiene-motivation factor theory, was proposed by the American behavioral scientist Frederick Herzberg. The theory holds that the motivation depth and effect of various factors are different.

8. The confusion of small bosses-management rights and ownership
In view of the relatively large flow of people near the unit, Xiao Wang contracted a small restaurant next to the unit, and hired a person who thought he was reliable to manage the small restaurant.Every day, only at noon or at night when he got off work, Xiao Wang would take a break from his busy schedule to go to a small shop to take care of business or settle expenses.

At the beginning of the business, the agent boss hired was relatively diligent, and only occasionally lamented his hard work or boasted about his labor returns.But with the passage of time, the agent owner became "in charge" of the small shop.At this time, Xiao Wang discovered that the acting boss had already started to use public affairs for personal gain and secretly hide his position.Situations such as not entering the account before meals, and taking things from one's store to support one's family are almost common.

Xiao Wang said that the wages he paid to the agent boss are not small, but judging from the current situation, if things go on like this in the long run, not to mention that he will not be able to recover the cost of opening the store, he may also be in danger of losing money.If another person came to help take care of it, maybe the newcomer would be able to do something.If the door is closed, I will be unhappy in my heart.

Xiao Wang was completely confused...

The right to operate a private enterprise refers to the right of the board of directors and managers to operate the business on behalf of the legal person of the company.The management right of a state-owned enterprise refers to the right of the enterprise to possess, use and dispose of the property granted to it by the state for operation and management.

The so-called management right refers to the right of the operator of the enterprise to possess, use and dispose of the property of the legal person of the enterprise according to law.Only after having the right to manage the property of the corporate legal person can an enterprise independently make business decisions according to the needs of the market, carry out production and operation activities independently, and adapt to changes in the market in a timely manner.Compared with ownership, management right has one less right of income.The right to possess, control and use the owner's means of production and commodities in accordance with the law without changing the ownership nature of the means of production.

Under normal circumstances, the management right belongs to the owner himself, but it can also be transferred to others according to laws, administrative orders and according to the will of the owner. This transfer is legal and should be protected by national laws.

Ownership is the legal right of all owners to possess, use, benefit from and dispose of their own property.It is a property right, so it is also called property ownership.Ownership is the most important and complete right among real rights, with three characteristics: absoluteness, exclusivity, and perpetuity, and its specific content includes four rights of possession, use, proceeds, and disposal.

After we have a certain understanding of management rights and ownership, let's go back and carefully analyze the reasons for Xiao Wang's confusion.In a corporate enterprise like Xiao Wang's, ownership and management rights are separated.

The system in which the owner fully occupies the surplus in the enterprise has given birth to the incentive system for the managers of the enterprise, that is: the owner pursues the largest surplus, and the operator pursues the best self-reward.Boss Xiao Wang's confusion stems from the issue of the agency owner's residual claim, that is, the agency owner should enjoy the final surplus of the restaurant in addition to his wages.

The interests of the agent owner who runs the small shop and Xiao Wang, who invests in opening the shop, affect each other because of the final surplus.At this time, the acting boss is not only the helper or manager of the investor, but also one of the investors.For the acting boss, the acting boss is investing in human capital.

The small store has a problem that confuses the small boss because of the remaining claim of the acting boss.In fact, an acting boss is different from a pure helper. The helper does the work of the owner, while the acting boss manages a small restaurant with his own ability, but the small shop does not belong to him.Therefore, after people realize the distinction between management rights and ownership rights, they tend to go to extremes.

Separation of ownership and management rights, a management system and management principle that properly separates the power of the state as the owner of state-owned means of production from the management autonomy of enterprises owned by the whole people as relatively independent commodity producers and operators.It is a reform principle and reform measure proposed for the management and operation of enterprises owned by the whole people after China implemented the socialist economic system reform.

Straightening out the relationship between owners, operators and producers is an objective requirement for state-owned enterprises to become socialist commodity producers and operators and market players with independent management and self-responsibility for profits and losses. Require.Its basic principles are:
①The principle of separation of government and enterprise responsibilities makes enterprises a relatively independent economic entity.

② The principle of combining and unifying responsibilities, rights, and interests, that is, through laws, regulations, contracts, and related policies, determine the responsibilities, rights, and interest relationships between the state and enterprises, owners and operators, and stipulate their respective behaviors. Make the three aspects closely related and cooperate closely.

③The principle of overall planning and reasonable consideration of the interests of the state, enterprises and employees.In particular, the operating results of the enterprise and the size of its contribution to the country are directly linked to the material interests of the enterprise and its employees. On the premise of improving labor productivity and economic benefits, it is ensured that the state receives more income, the enterprise retains more, and employee benefits and personal income continue to grow. .

(End of this chapter)