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Social factors contributing to tacit coordination

Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014

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Other Authors: Holland, Mike
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2015
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 Holland, Mike
author_browse Holland, Mike
author_facet Holland, Mike
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2014 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria.
description Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014
format Thesis
id oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/43990
institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:36:55.772Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
publishDateSort 2015
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
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source_str UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/43990 Social factors contributing to tacit coordination Holland, Mike ichelp@gibs.co.za Place, Helen UCTD Knowledge, Theory of Economic -- Psychological aspects Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2014 Tacit coordination occurs when parties have to coordinate but communication is not possible. People are able to coordinate remarkably successfully through the use of focal points, choices that possess some characteristic that makes them significant to both parties. While a great deal of research has been undertaken to understand the mechanisms of focal points themselves, little research has directly and empirically investigated the role of the identity of the coordination partner. This study aimed to identify the effects of social distance, age, ethnicity and gender on tacit coordination in order to understand more about the contextual sensitivity of tacit coordination. An empirical repeated-measures design was used to collect data through the playing of two games. The first experiment was tested on 58 pairings of individuals, 29 pairs of strangers and 29 pairs of colleagues who knew each other relatively well. Subjects attempted to match choices on a table with their partner. The second experiment used a resource-allocation game with (n = 28) subjects each undergoing four treatments, a control treatment, a treatment with a partner of the opposite gender, a treatment with a partner of a different ethnicity and a partner much older than the subject. Results overall revealed that subjects who knew each other outperformed strangers in a matching scenario. Furthermore, subjects who had to share resources were more tentative about claiming resources from partners older than them or belonging to a different ethnicity. This indicates a low level of certainty of the actions of people with different social histories to the subject, as their focal points, saliences and norms are likely to be different. As tacit coordination underpins a large number of social and economic everyday interactions it is interesting to see the impact of a relatively simple visual or social cue on coordination success and coordinating behaviour. The research concluded with the practical implications of the research and suggestions for future research to build on the foundation of this research project. zkgibs2015 Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) MBA Unrestricted 2015-03-13T11:33:14Z 2015-03-13T11:33:14Z 2015-03-24 2014 Mini Dissertation Place, H 2014, Social factors contributing to tacit coordination, MBA Mini Dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/43990> http://hdl.handle.net/2263/43990 en © 2014 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle UCTD
Knowledge, Theory of
Economic -- Psychological aspects
Social factors contributing to tacit coordination
title Social factors contributing to tacit coordination
title_full Social factors contributing to tacit coordination
title_fullStr Social factors contributing to tacit coordination
title_full_unstemmed Social factors contributing to tacit coordination
title_short Social factors contributing to tacit coordination
title_sort social factors contributing to tacit coordination
topic UCTD
Knowledge, Theory of
Economic -- Psychological aspects
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/43990