The dark side of social relationships – the context of the video game industry

IC resolution resulting from too strong SR requiring time and effort, which negatively affects the functioning of the team

IC absorbing employees’ attention on negative emotions, which does not serve productivity and creativity

IC resulting from strong SR, which can cause burnout and the desire to change jobs

IC resulting from the inability of the team to intervene in a strong relationship between a supervisor and an employee

Greater leniency with regard to mistakes made by a person with whom a supervisor has a strong relationship

Hiring friends

Making decisions under the influence of and for the benefit of people with whom a superior has a strong relationship

Higher pay for a person with whom a supervisor has a closer relationship relative to other people in the same position, or the distribution of the company’s salary pool taking into account an additional person hired because of strong SR with a supervisor

Termination of cooperation due to the mixing of private and business relations

In a situation of dissatisfaction with cooperation with people with whom strong SR are maintained, dilemmas about the future of the relationship

The high cost of ending cooperation with a person with whom SR are maintained (due to the frequent lack of formal agreements)

The cost of attending events, e.g., industry conferences, team-building outings, to maintain relationships that have already been established

Costs associated with the large amount of time spent on an ongoing basis to maintain close relationships

Costs outweighing the benefits of building a community of strong SR in the VGI

Difficulties and costs associated with fighting for one’s own priorities

Fear of incurring costs in the form of damaging relationships in the future (domino effect)

Difficulty of entering some communities, more-or-less deliberately isolating others, and being closed to outsiders

Disturbed work–life balance, which also leads to costs (for the company and in one’s personal life) and may ultimately negatively affect the functioning of the company (domino effect)

Lowering the margin in transactions with a friendly entity (bearing alternative costs)

Choosing the offer of friendly entities, even though from an economic point of view they are not optimal for the company (bearing alternative costs)

Making economic decisions as other friendly entities do – the herd phenomenon – even though these decisions are not optimal for the enterprise

The difficulty of making certain decisions that are necessary for the good of the organization, such as admonishing or firing an employee

Lack of objectivity, which can lead to inefficient operations in the company