Entropy and equifinality can definitely impact small groups in negative ways. Entropy generally means that the group stops moving forward and is stuck in one place. The example that the book gives is that there is too much focus on rules and regulations and so everyone is concerned with falling into order, or perhaps they are mad because they are stifled by the rules and regulations. I know this happens a lot at my work because we have to do certain things that sometimes become a huge burden. For instance at one point we lost shifts and had to attend special training classes on Sunday mornings at 8am if we didn't sell a certain number of a specific appetizer (an appetizer which, by the way, was completely nasty). The whole team was impacted negatively because there was too much focus on this one thing, and people quit or didnt want to work shifts because of it.
Equifinality can also hurt groups but sometimes help them as well. The book gives the example of weight loss via sports training or cardio or diet and exercise. Indeed there are more ways to succeed than just working together, but in group settings, often times working together insures success in the long term. I thought this was great when our classmate mentioned a group project where everyone inputted individually instead of working together. Going back to the weight loss example, you may lose weight with just diet or exercise, but long term results come from a combo of both.
I like your example about how your job required you to sell a certain amount of apppetizers or you would be penalized with less shifts, etc. We see this often in many jobs that involve sales. I used to work at a credit union, and although our credit union had a common goal they were looking to meet, the "team players" (which were really us member service reps) were supposed to help meet this goal, yet still maintain our individual goals as well. We were all trying to meet our monthly quotas for the credit union, but some people were unable to meet these standards.It was easy to get off track because of the rules and regulations so in the end people would become disorganized and were less likely to make these goals happen.
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