CIO — A major pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, named its new CEO, ending a three way race for the top slot. In this instance, the dark-horse candidate won. Weeks later a major beverage company, PepsiCo, named its new CEO, this time naming a woman who was widely expected to win the big chair. And of course, General Electric kept everyone inside and outside the company guessing for years about who would succeed Jack Welch until it named Jeff Immelt in 2001. While everyone in business lauds market competition, competition inside a company for rank and position is another proposition.
One on One
Competition is healthy. Putting your talents and skills against the talents and skills of another individual or group of individuals is inherent to the human condition. It is why we love sports. We want to watch the best take on the best and see who comes out on top. Such competitiveness is also intrinsic to entertainment; only those who can master their art, be it drama, fiction, music or visual arts, and rise above and stand out against the thousands of other talents, become well-known. Our passion for competition has fueled the rise and wild popularity of shows like American Idol, only one in the long line of competitive variety shows. Competition is undeniably with us.
It is in the workplace too. But on the organizational side, competition is not so cut and dried. A survey of more than 2,500 middle managers by BusinessWeek concluded that competition is essential to getting ahead. Two thirds of surveyed managers believed that competing would get you ahead of those who lack competitive spirit. But the survey also revealed some interesting side points. Two thirds of men and nearly eight in 10 women said they are not hyper-competitive—e.g., “would [not] eat nails for breakfast.” Youth was served in this survey, with nearly half of all workers age 25 to 34 believing it’s OK to fire the bottom 10 percent of performers annually. Managers also valued taking extra effort to get ahead; 72 percent of men and 80 percent of women said they would go back to school. However, “undermining a boss” or “sabotage [of] a colleague” ranked under 5 percent for both genders.
Competition leaps to the forefront when successors at any level are named, but it also lurks beneath the surface of performance. Employees want to do their best to position themselves to be promoted, or at least move upward. The challenge for managers in the organizational world is to find ways to manage it—that is, to highlight its benefits and minimize its risks. Here are some suggestions:
