Puckarinen

There was an interesting segment on This American Life a few weeks ago, about how one bad apple truly can spoil the entire barrel. In a study, conducted by William Felps of Rotterdam School of Management, one actor playing "a jerk", "a slacker," or a "depressive pessimist" could (and did) turn the entire group into one.

Ira Glass talks to Will Felps, a professor at Rotterdam School of Management in the Netherlands, who designed an experiment to see what happens when a bad worker joins a team. Felps divided people into small groups and gave them a task. One member of the group would be an actor, acting either like a jerk, a slacker or a depressive. And within 45 minutes, the rest of the group started behaving like the bad apple.

Imagine what one bad apple can do to a hockey team. In more that 45 minutes.