Information cascades’ role in the efficiency of organizational structures
Source: https://intersol.ca/news/organizational-culture-and-the-5-monkeys-experiment/
How an experiment with monkeys, bananas, and a ladder explained the role of information cascade within organizational culture?
A block of bananas was hanging from the ceiling with a ladder underneath tall enough to reach the bananas. Five monkeys were placed in the room described above. As one of the hungry monkeys tried climbing the ladder to reach for bananas, the water sprinkles went off leaving all of the monkeys in the room soaking wet. One of the monkeys was taken out of the room replaced by a new one. As that monkey tried reaching for bananas, the sprays went off again. One of the oldest monkeys out – a new one in. As the newest member tried reaching for the food, it got attacked by the rest of the group that was already aware that reaching for bananas meant getting wet. Same procedure with replacing monkeys kept happening until none of the current residents of the room actually experienced the consequences of reaching for the food. All they knew was that reaching for bananas meant getting attacked by the rest. For all we know, the sprinkles might have been long since turned off and bananas were a fair game, but the information spread from the original sources was passed on to the newest monkeys leaving the animals hungry.
Same as in an information cascade we only have the first few decisions being backed up by relevant information with the rest of them made by analyzing the behavior of the previous “players”. Within the organizational structures, similar information cascades might result in inefficient behaviors, missed opportunities, and outdated policies. That is why the understanding of the information cascades presented through a simple experiment based on animal behavior is crucial to understanding the strategies for efficiency within strictures of all focuses.