The Ringelmann effect is the tendency for individual members of a group to become increasingly less productive as the size of their group increases. But on the contrary there is a proverb saying that “If we don’t all raw, the boat won’t go ”.
Well, we all know that there are a lot of proverbs or idioms that give opposite advices or meanings fort a same situation. For example, “Two heads are better than one” and “Paddle your own canoe”. The first proverb indicates that you should better work together with someone rather than working alone. But the second proverb suggests that you should better work on your own alone.
There is a similar situation between Ringelmann effect and “If we don’t all raw, the boat won’t go ” proverb. Ringelmann effect suggests that if the number of persons doing something together increases, then the things that those people do will not be effective or effectiveness of the individuals in the group will decrease. If the people in a group do not all know their responsibilities, or if the people in a group do not full fill their responsibilities, or if the people in a group are not experienced, then Ringelmann effect is true and the individual members of a group become less productive. But if all the members of the group are experienced and doing whatever their work properly, so in that case all the people in the group can be effective. So Ringelman effect won’t be valid in this situation.
On the other hand “If we don’t all raw, the boat won’t go ” proverb suggests that the group of people will be more effective by working together. If we think about this proverb literally, if there is a group of people in a boat and only one or two of them are rowing the boat go because the other four or five peole who are not rowing not only do not row but also make the boat to move harder because of their weights. But if all the people on the boat row, the boat will go very easily. This is true if all the people in the boat row and if all the people in the boat row poperly. If some of the people in the boat row but not properly, again the boat won’t go. So the important things here are; every one in a group should work and everyone in a group should work properly. That is, if everyone in a group is experienced and doing their respoensibilities, that group work will be effective.
So as a result, if all the members of a group are experienced and are fullfilling their responsibilities, every member of the group becomes productive and also the result of the group work allso becomes productive.