OB Written Assignment

Dependence

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 OB Written Assignment

Contents

1. Introduction 3

2. Conceptual Framework 3

3. Review of Literature 3

4. Study of the subject and deductions and their extrapolation to a generic case 4

5. Contributions to OB 8

6. Conclusion 8

7. Bibliography 9

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Introduction

“Like the body that is made up of different limbs and organs, all moral creatures must depend on
each other to exist.” – Proverb Quotes

Dependence is one of the cornerstones of individual, interpersonal, organizational interactions. It is

one of the most important bases on which relationships and bonding are created and nurtured. The son
depends on the mother for sustenance and love and many other things. The boss depends on his
workforce to give him profits, whereas the workforce depends on him for their salary. Dependence
permeates all strata of society and is evident everywhere. The following write up will introspect the
various aspects of this trait and come up with relevant inferences.

Conceptual Framework

Dependence - Relying on or requiring a person or thing for support, supply, or what is needed1

As the definition clearly states, the quality of dependence is innately interpersonal and hence is
evident on every level. The concept finds application in any binary, tertiary or multiple interaction
bases. Hence, the same in its various forms can be observed inter alia in group activities like projects
and assignments, individual activities where there are skewed references, in organizations and
institutions and even in the relationship between an addict and the addiction. The subject has been
studied basically with respect to:

Social Dependence

Family Dependence

Addiction Dependence

Review of Literature

Dependence as the definition suggests has plethora of works with direct and indirect reference. The
following books have been referred to, in order to understand the concept along with many others, in
fact the scope of this present assignment or any typical study cannot fit in the bibliographical
reference of dependence. However enumerated are a few of the literature referred to:

Loyalties by John Galsworthy – The play by renowned author John Galsworthy looks at loyalties and
prejudices in English society and in a way charts out the social dependence quotient that is prevalent
in society quite brilliantly

Emergent Learning Behaviour in a Simulated Organization Faced with Tasks Requiring Team Effort
P. -S. Deng and E. G. Tsacle – The study looks at effectiveness of synergy in group tasks and the
increase in productivity resulting out of it and thus explores in a way organizational dependence in a
way.

1
http://www.google.co.in/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:dependence&sa=X&ei=U3RMTM-
BFcqwrAfO_bG5Dg&ved=0CBoQkAE
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Researching family relationships: a qualitative mixed methods approach by Jacqui Gabb – The paper
explores family relationships and in a way assesses the dependence of various family members on
each other.

Other than the aforementioned literature various other case studies have been referred to. In fact some
of the most important sources for this exercise has been novels which chart out Human dependence in
an explicit manner.

Study of the subject and deductions and their extrapolation to a generic case

Dependence, being a very sublime characteristic of the human psyche does not express itself clearly
when researched on an interview or questionnaire basis. In fact, even third party estimation more
often than not is biased towards an underestimation or overestimation of the quality. Hence the typical
research methodology has been that of observance. The subjects under consideration has been kept
confidential and has been referred to as X or Y or similar alphabets. The situations under which they
were observed were as follows:

1. In cases where certain group activities were conducted

2. In cases where the subject was engaged in an individual duty.

The dynamics from the aforementioned situations has been noted and the same along with the
findings are duly enumerated below:

Category 1 – Subjects who portrayed characteristics of dependence as dominant trait in interaction or

execution

Subjects who fell under the aforementioned category typically had the affinity towards collaboration
and had the propensity towards involving interested individuals in any sort of activity. The onus was
more on seeking assistance in certain aspect or the other of the job at hand and there was a distinct
feeling of discomfiture during times of isolation. The same can be explained through the following
incident of character X in the following environs:

I was walking along a step or two behind this X, who had recently been given certain assignment
which was supposed to be completed and submitted individual. The same I could decipher through his
rendition of the event over the phone to a close friend of his not based in the same institute. The
characteristic shown was rather unique – The individual had received the assignment around 5 min
back and he was in isolation for a similar period of time. Yet what was notable was that the person
had to share his hardship with a friend. This is indeed an expression of social dependence which is a
subset of the gregarious qualities of human beings. However this was much noted in this person who
could not spend 5min to reflect on the job at hand but took recourse to finding support in company of
a friend.

Moving further on from this incident of X, I followed him and as I walked I engaged him in
conversation to gauge at the situation that was presented to him. The reaction was typical to the
reaction described above. The individual described his predicament to me and the breakup of his
narration was as follows:

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The pie chart above had a vey interesting revelation about how familial dependence is significant to
certain individuals. The individual ha d spent around a month away from home and the fact that he
depended on his parents and sibling for the mental cushion was starkly evident in the converstaion we
had.

I decided to tag along with him further because the other feature which I needed to explore was the
subjects group dynamics and gauge at his comfort level in isolation and society. Hence the next scene
that I will be introspecting on is the group conversation for a group assignment for the subject.

The results of the observation was pretty much concordant with the initial experiences. The subject
revelled in the group situation, was an active participant and thrived on the symbiosis. The subject
seemed to cherish the fact that people were assigned activities and there was a level of dependence
among group members.

My next observation situation was when In went to X’s hostel room and found him working on his
individual assignment. The difference between the vibes shown at the group assignment and
individual assignment was stark. There was a decided lack of enthusiasm in the job at hand . I asked
him whether the work at hand was ardous and whether that was the reason fir his dejected demeanour.
The reason I got from him was again interesting. He told me that the work was not that difficult and it
only had a certain level of tedium with it. His main issue was that he did not find it preferrable to do
the work alone and would have been happy if somebody helped him out.

Typically my findings from my study of subject X are as folllows:

Dependence a trait is a subset of human gregariousness and the spirit of social existence

Dependence can be social dependence where subjects typically draw strength from society at
large

Dependence on family is also very much present in Indian society

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I would now like to move away from subject X and narrate another subject with whom I had
conversation during one of my travels. It was not for the purpose of this study but the events once
rendered will produce some interesting insights.

The person under consideration – subject Y was an interesting case because of the more variations of
dependence he brought in light. So far from X we had broadly learnt about social and familial
dependence. From subject Y we will be getting a deep insight on other aspects of dependence which
we come across in society, namely:

Dependence on superstitions

Dependence on circumstance and environs for the planned activity

The following is the narration which introspect these aspects through a description of my interaction
with subject Y.

The subject Y and I had an interesting interaction during a train journey once, the train journey being
of more than a day, which gave me the sample space. The subject concerned and I was engaged in
conversation when I suddenly noticed him touching his left thumb with his right whenever we crossed
any bridge or overpass. It was a curious idiosyncrasy and I could not resist asking him the reason
behind this strange action. What he replied was more fascinating. He told me that his brother had once
met with a train accident while the train was crossing an overpass. Subsequently when he ventured out
he took a train with a similar route and while crossing the bridge where his brother had lost his life he
had performed the same action stated above. The train did not meet an accident and this led to him
believing that the action was lucky. This led to his dependence on the action fuelled by superstition
and he could not cross any bridge without performing the same activity. I have cross referenced this
particular trait and have come to the following conclusion – Superstition is a very common form of
dependence and often a source of sustenance. It is decoupled with education and culture and is as
much present with a post graduate as with an illiterate.

The second aspect that I was referring to is similar to the previous in the sense that what I have
noticed is that people do certain things in certain ways whether it be drinking water, or writing which
is typical and without which people won’t free comfortable. People call this an idiosyncrasy or a
typical behavioural trait. However, the same can be described as an odd form of superstition wherein
people depend on the activity to be performed before they get the mental sense of preparedness to
proceed. It often acts like the warm up of an athlete and hence is an interesting a perspective of human
behaviour.

The other forms of dependence that I want to dwell on before I move on to the study of people who
claim to be delinked or not dependent are those who are dependent are addiction. It is a serious social
curse and afflicts many. The subjects who have been observed have been random people at certain
locations and one or two with whom I had certain degree of interaction. One of them, subject Z gave
me certain insights on how this dependence originates, how it slowly captures the psyche and
ultimately how it holds its grip on the person. Typically what I found was that dependence of this
form typically starts in an unassuming way through the medium of “harmless” experimentation – the
first puff or the first drag or the first shot whatever people call it. Then as time goes by people start
craving for the second shot and the second begets the third, the third begets the fourth till the time the
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addict starts depending on it fully for his existence and justifies every result through the addiction.
Another spin off from this is the dependence on the co-addicts and the bonding that is formed.

Category 2 – Subjects who apparently did not portray characteristics of dependence as dominant trait
in interaction or execution

My second category of observations was concentrated to people who were more of individuals, loners
or people with strong character who liked to lead and took the onus of doing their work themselves.
The methodology of research is the same and is in the form of informal interactions and character
observations.

My first subject in this subject category would be subject A whom I had come across in my
workplace. The person concerned was in the mid management level and was a high performer. He had
a typical working methodology wherein he would always give work to his juniors. But his typical
approach was that he would tell them that he did not depend on them for the engagement and it was a
learning experience for them and he could do the work himself. He typically backed it up with many
instances of night outs where he re did the work of his juniors when he did not find the quality up to
his standards. On that level he can be considered to be not dependent. However if we carefully
analyze the situation certain levels of dependence will become more apparent.

Dependence on family

An important reason why the subject could spend so many night outs was the support he got from his
family. The same was enumerated by him. He clearly explained that his family supported his habit of
taking the workload and supported him by reducing his part of the household chores that he was
supposed to perform. He actually depended on his family to provide him the support so that he could
work in peace.

Dependence on his own need to work

This is a very interesting aspect where the subject at a certain level agreed that he needed to work that
hard and could not do without it. This typically is a form of addiction about which I have mentioned
above but this variant has a socially positive attribute to it. None the less it is indeed a form of
dependence when somebody needs to spend at least two nights out just to work on a regular basis. It is
but an interesting take on work holism as it is nothing but a form of dependence where the subject has
to work for certain extended hours before he/she can obtain peace of mind.

Another subject about whom I would like to write about is subject B – a loner who prefers to stay by
himself and does his work mostly sans consultation. I came across one such individual who would do
his work mostly within the confines of his room and he had a closed door approach. The more
interesting thing was that he displayed similar characteristics in group tasks also. I noticed that
whenever he was involved in group activities, he had a tendency of wrapping up the group discussions
as soon as possible so that he could get back to being with himself. As far as the task was concerned,
the person either sent his deliverable or stopped caring about the engagement or if he had a leadership
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role in the group did the work himself without consulting anybody. One might call this independence
or lack of social skills or anything. However, from the perspective of OB, the same can be interpreted
as dependence on the loneliness as a mode of existence. The person has this urge to stay alone and
then only can he be productive. One might infer that in a way it is a form of addiction.

Contribution to OB

Dependence as a quality has immense contribution to OB. The case studies enumerated in the
previous sections along with the telephonic interviews and conversations revealed the following
factors:

The figure above is based on sample studies of different age categories and the degree of dependence
perceived by them on a scale of 1 to 100. The graph clearly shows an increasing trend with age.

This shows that dependence is one of the tenets on which OB stands as dependence defines the
relative behaviours, the reactions and the fallouts that is always a part of organization and behaviour.
It defines the relationships based on which causal networks are assessed and qualities like deviant or
compliant behaviour and other aspects can be observed. It forms the basic tenet on which OB can be
studied.

Conclusion

Dependence is omnipresent in society. Every human being expresses it at some level either
consciously or unconsciously. In fact dependence can be considered as a being in itself and it has an
influence on every human. Hence there is a tendency of people to go to people and work together. In
fact the entire economy and every micro and macro level factors work on this factor. Hence even the
loneliest of loners does have to interact. Every interaction is a form of dependence and the trait in fact
links and forms society.

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Bibliography

Loyalties by John Galsworthy

Emergent Learning Behaviour in a Simulated Organization Faced with Tasks Requiring Team Effort
P. -S. Deng and E. G. Tsacle

Researching family relationships: a qualitative mixed methods approach by Jacqui Gabb

http://www.umm.edu/ency/article/001522.htm

Siddhartha – Herman Hesse

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