I found a recent newspaper article about 4 basic forms of social behaviour very interesting and thought provoking. As per the article, the behaviour forms are: Mutualism, Selfishness, Altruism and Spite.
It is understood that human beings act to maximize their own benefit. This is called selfishness but there are also plenty of examples where fairness (mutualism) and altruism abound.
Let us look at a case study to understand these basic behaviour forms.
Say, you have a partner in your company and your company received a surplus of Rs.100/-. Mutualism is when you split this amount 50-50 between you and your partner. Selfishness is when you take 70 (say a larger share) with you and part with 30 (smaller share) to your partner. You practice altruism when you keep a smaller share for you and handover the larger share to your partner.
But Spite is very interesting.
Spite indeed is sensitive trait. And researchers say that it is found only in Homo sapiens. How does spite work? In the above example, spite is when you make an unfair offer to your partner and your partner refuses to accept it and due to the dynamics thereafter, both do not get anything!
Keith Jensen and colleges at max Plank Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany conducted several experiments of Spite on Animals and concluded that animals do not practice it.
This set me thinking. Yes, indeed it is there in human blood. It is a situation where neither you nor your partner (your society / stakeholder) benefit. It is a kind of lose-lose situation. Individuals and communities practice this aplenty. This could be a proverbial situation of ‘you don’t mind your brother dying but you definitely want to see the sister in law, a widow’.
Having worked at many parts of India and seen the communal and societal bondages at these places, I feel Keralites practice spite a lot. ‘I don’t mind losing but I don’t want him to gain’ attitude is a derivate of spite behaviour. While spite is initiated by selfishness on one side, it is jealousy, egoism and intolerance on the other side that nurtures in the beahaviour of spite to spread. Like a human bomb that we hear, indeed spite is destructive in nature.
I think spite is the major reason why developments and progress never happen in Kerala.
Political parties, whether they are part of a group or at opposition, definitely indulge in spiteful behaviour. When one party comes to power, it will not try to sustain the developmental activities that was begun by the previous regime, but kills it, so that the credit does not go to the first one. Who suffers, the state, of course? But for the politicians and their parties, it really does not matter. Look around and you will see why development in Kerala is stunted!
Blame it on spite, if you like.
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5 comments:
I agree with you that Keralites personalise issues far too much. Our EQ development is pre-world war. My take on this is that we are all born to the world as normal. After birth the societal influences shape our reactions to situations. Our culture, our movies glorify spiteful behaviour.
As a management thinker, I would like you to emphasise on use of management tools like SWOT, PEST, 5Whys to analyse and manage change.
I have had to deal to with the
most challenging situation when my startup customer was being acquired, my lead investor died and one had to deal with a great deal of uncertainity and change.
What I would have I liked to be advised at that time, was priciples of change management, to be able to focus on priorities by using SWOT, PEST and 5 Whys. It is these kind of inputs KMA or TiE needs to impart in terms of management thinking.
SR,
Just to add to your blog on spiteful behaviour. Spiteful reaction is nothing but bullying. Now there are laws against bullying in many countries. I was thinking in my mind that it is nothing but the lack of management skills that leads to such behaviour. To validate my views, please look at this link:
http://www.out-law.com/page-8416
Keralites are taught to respect elders (from the Bhagvad Gita or so ?). Due to this scripting, elders think it is their birth right to bully younger generation. There is a need to debug this programming. Scores of youngsters are let down due to this petty approach of Keralites. It is nothing but the lack of management enlightenment in Kerala.
Now I know why we, in Bengal, are so intelligent! Come to think of it,not only did we discover this spiteful behaviour but we are practising it for the past two & half centuries & now we have every right in this planet to teach it- even to the Keralites.
So, SR, the claim to the spitious heaven is rightfully ours, not yours.
Now I know why we, in Bengal, are so intelligent! Come to think of it,not only did we discover this spiteful behaviour but we are practising it for the past two & half centuries & now we have every right in this planet to teach it- even to the Keralites.
So, SR, the claim to the spitious heaven is rightfully ours, not yours.
Now I know why we, in Bengal, are so intelligent! Come to think of it,not only did we discover this spiteful behaviour but we are practising it for the past two & half centuries & now we have every right in this planet to teach it- even to the Keralites.
So, SR, the claim to the spitious heaven is rightfully ours, not yours.
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