Thirty years ago, author Alfie Kohn released a thought-provoking book that really rattled the management world. It was titled No Contest: The Case Against Competition, in which he wrote humans are constantly struggling to outdo each other in this hyper-competitive world of ours.
He introduced the acronym MEGA – mutually exclusive goal attainment – where "one person succeeds only if another does not" while arguing that competition, when used to increase productivity, can actually be counterproductive: "Something is drastically wrong with such an arrangement … How can we do our best when we are spending our energies trying to make others lose – and fearing that they will make us lose? … What happens to our self-esteem when it becomes dependent on how much better we do than the next person? … An incentive to see other people lose cannot help but drive a wedge between us."
![Pitch Perfect, starring Rebel Wilson, features women competing in singing competitions.](/web/20160912155515im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/i/q/u/p/i/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gp9otn.png/1464832113656.jpg)
The intellectual commotion triggered by Kohn's book turned out to be more of a tremor than an earthquake since competition has clearly accelerated in the three decades since his work.
In the 1990s we had the balanced scorecard. In the 2000s, we had General Electric's Jack Welch advising leaders to sack the bottom 10 per cent of the workforce. In this current decade, we have traders and bankers risking an entire financial system in pursuit of personal gain.
So, yes, competition is still alive and well. Mightier than ever.
If we focus on the everyday workplace experience, the manifestation of competition is evident in a variety of ways. You can see it in employee results plastered on office walls; in the promotion of 'Employee of the Month' awards; in the ringing of bells when a sale is made; in the use of performance appraisals that rank team members against each other.
But what are some of the consequences? A study published two months ago by British researchers sheds some light on what transpires.
The study comprised a number of experiments. In the first, 352 adults were told to imagine they were employed in one of two scenarios. In one, they had a colleague with whom they were competing for a promotion. In the other, they were competing against many colleagues for a trip away.
The findings revealed female participants viewed competition the most negatively particularly when they were competing against other women. They were also "significantly" more likely to expect their relationships to be damaged and to subsequently endure a range of negative emotions.
The second experiment moved from an imagined scenario to a real one; 214. participants were split into separate groups. One group was instructed to compete; the other to co-operate. The task was a typing activity with a prize on offer for the winner.
The results matched those of the first experiment. Those who competed rather than co-operated were more likely to report damaged relationships and negative emotions. And again, it was most pronounced among women who had to compete against other women.
So here's what we can take away from these findings.
For starters, it has nothing to do with the tedious 'mean girls' and catfight stereotypes.
For starters, it has nothing to do with the tedious "mean girls" and catfight stereotypes. If that were the case, women in this study would have been as competitive in co-operative environments, which is not at all what happened.
A more rational explanation is that women value harmony and equality more than men, which explains why their relationships and emotions are negatively affected in environments characterised by competition, and why men weren't fazed at all by the competitive experiments.
Ultimately, it's evident the hyper-competitive world in which we live is (still) inherently a patriarchy, which is why competition dominates the way we work.
As the researchers conclude: "The prevalent competitive norms and practices in many workplaces may put women and their organisations at a disadvantage."
Which means it isn't just women who endure the consequences but men, too.
Is your workplace more competitive or more cooperative? How so?
James Adonis is the author of 'Employee Enragement'.
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