Team Production vs Individual Production

Jonathan Haidt's "How to Get Rich to Share the Marbles" discusses how people are more likely to be willing to share their excess wealth with those who do not have an abundance if there is an indication of an equal contribution.  However, there are many times when people feel like they are doing separate tasks or more work and therefore, believe that their individual efforts should earn them a greater proportion of the reward.  Specifically, Haidt states that people do not feel entitled to shares by the "mere existence of inequality."  

An example that could coincide with this situation would concern the experience of living with my roommates.  I roomed with one of them my freshman and sophomore year.  I lived with another the summer after.  And the third I lived with my junior year.  So it is pretty neat to be living with all three of them under the same roof.  We get along most of the times, but when any inner resentment arises, it's about cleaning and cooking.

On weeks when we are all generally free, we try to set aside Thursday nights for our "roomie dinners."  We attempt to split up the work equally.  In this post, I'll refer to my roommates by their initials, R, Y, and H.  This may seem a little systematic but we all have different roles in the dinner creation.  Y, who has a car, usually gets the ingredients, and of course, we split the total.  H usually makes the dinner since she is the best cook out of all us.  R and I clean the dishes at the end or accompany H when she needs help.  This is done so that everyone feels that they are contributing and feels worthy of eating the food.  When all of us do our parts to help make the dinner, then we can all eat without feelings of bitterness.  And we hope to do this in the most efficient way possible.

There were a couple instances when some roommates did not follow through with their tasks, yet still felt that they rightfully deserved to eat the food.  For example, one time, Y was asked by her friend if she needed anything from Walmart, and thus, she gave the friend a grocery list and then he delivered it to our apartment as a generous favor.  With that in mind, you would assume that she would help out in other aspects such as cooking or cleaning, but she did not and did not feel at all apologetic for her lack of assistance.  I'm not sure how the others felt, but I definitely felt a little bitter.

Despite the silly and trivial example, we can learn a lot about teamwork.  Teamwork can be beneficial due to the division of labor effects, meaning two can produce more than twice the one.  In my case, one could accomplish the entire work, if necessary.  Sometimes, teamwork is crucial because specialized skill is required and not one person has all these required skills.  Thus, we would say that teamwork arises from the comparative advantage of the members.  We know that H is a better cook so she has that skill.  Although anyone can clean, I feel that R and I are the most time-efficient.  And obviously Y has privilege of owning a car for driving to the grocery store.

There is also the matter of fairness and what constitutes it.  It is easy to see what is entailed when work displays a horizontal division of the effort and each contributes the same share.  However, it is a bit more difficult to identify when members are not equally proficient.  Then there is the question whether fairness demands equal output, equal effort, or maybe a combination of the two.