Nobody really thinks about themselves being affiliated with social facilitation. But when you are at work, such as a retail store you might be lazy and not talk to customers or be folding clothes, but when your boss comes around then you start talking and helping all customers as well as fold clothes and make it look like your doing a lot and have been working the whole time.Which is what social facilitation is, when you do better on simple tasks in the presence of other people. Doing well in front of a boss, or playing a sport better in front of people is also the same thing.
Social Facilitation
I find this to be very true when I am working on simple tasks that make me bored. I work at a home improvement store as a cashier and when I see managers around I tend to always be standing up straight and looking for something to work on. However when managers are not present I tend to sit down and just wait for customers to come around. I have a slightly different experience with sports however. Part of this is most likely because I really enjoy sports so I don't want to waste the time I have by not doing everything I can. Therefore I have a hard time seeing others that decide to do a sport not doing all that they can whether they are being watched or not as I do not think people would want to waste their time when they are doing what they enjoy.
I really feel this social facilitation at my job at Subway. I would really be able to make some great sandwiches while a lot of people are watching as long as they are simple meat and minimal veggies. As soon as the meat becomes complicated, people want a specific order of toppings, or there are so many veggies that it is difficult to close the sandwich, I start to mess up and feel like there is just too much pressure. The fact that people are patient helps with the pressure of course, but I still have a tough time trying to forget about all of the people that are either watching me or waiting on me. I almost feel like social facilitation can happen when you feel like people are waiting on you even if they aren't watching you or you can't see them. You had a good thoughtful post.
Maybe we all have similar experience of trying to perform well when someone we want to impress is watching. When someone I’m interested in came to watch me play in a sports game, I would want to enhance my performance to give good impression. But sometimes the pressure to impress others can eventually spoil everything. And this can be explained by arousal and whether the work is a simple, well practiced task or not. I easily get nervous and too excited, so I usually perform poorly when someone important to me is watching.
Your comment makes me think of the show undercover CEO. In this show the CEO of a company applies for an entry level job for his own company under an alias name and most of the time a disguise. He gets to see what the job entails, see how other employees work, and assess the efficiency of their company. What I think is genius about this show is that in most situations employees would act differently if they knew their boss was right infront of them. It's basically an experiment without the control.
You caught me, this is so true. Relating to your example, I work in retail right now, and I know for a fact that I go "balls to the wall" when managers are around. I usually perform with 95% of my best effort on a regular work day, but when management swings around I tend to give 110%. Granted I work really hard because I believe in good customer service, but putting in that extra effort sometimes arises because we like to be appreciated, recognized and thanked for our hard efforts. I think we pursue social facilitation because we feel good when we hear positive feedback about ourselves.
hah, social facilitation. reminds me of the time i spent in Korea with my uncle. he had very high expectations for me that i knew i had to meet or otherwise there would be very uncomfortable consequences. therefore, i worked my ass off while i was there.
i actually have a really hard time self-motivating myself. maybe i should go back to Korea? :P
If you are even reasonably invested in your job as an employee, I think this is something you participate in. I work in food service and we do the same thing. Sit and chat until a manager walks around the corner and we scatter and look busy asap.
I can definitely relate to your post. I worked for a year and a half in a retail clothing store where my job was to help customers and fold clothes. Whenever my manager wasn't in the room I was working in, I would go behind a table and sit on my phone, checking Twitter and Facebook out of boredom. But as soon as my manager came into my room, I would jump all over a customer to ask them if they needed assistance, or look as busy as possible folding clothes.
I can vouch for doing the same thing while working or even playing a sport. Its really funny actually when you think about it. You always try to preform to your bosses standards when they are around but besides that you try to do the minimal amount of work. Same for sports if your coach is watching you will preform to expectations or if your crush decides to watch. You try to prefomr to your maximum potential. The question that comes to mind is why? For example you are getting paid to work at a job. Why not do what is expected of you without someone constantly over your shoulder. You should be able to do the work for the sake of being paid.