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ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR - II

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DR. SUSMITA MUKHOPADHYAY
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, VGSOM, IIT KHARAGPUR

Module 03:
Lecture 05 : Benefits and drawbacks of competition and cooperation
ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR - II

Benefits and drawbacks

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After having thorough knowledge about various

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aspects of competition and cooperation, it is
necessary to put a glance about advantages and
disadvantages of both the competition and
cooperation.
 Collaboration Scope, Competition and Social
Organizational Dependency

Multi-firm

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collaboration
Competition

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Firm-to-firm
collaboration

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With-in-firm
collaboration

Task Social Org. structure Goal

Cooperation are beneficials in every organizational

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 Bonding support
 Teamwork and shared decision

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 Openness, trust and safety
 Self work and personal power
 Employee wellbeing
Benefits of Cooperation

 Bonding, support and playfulness:

It is hard to maintain positive feelings about someone who is

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trying to make lose of others. Hurt feelings and arguments

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often result from competitive play. In cooperative play,

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challenge, discovery and success are shared. Emphasis is on
participation, acceptance and the ‘joy of play.’ In the end, it’s
the relationship with each other that counts.
Benefits of Cooperation

 Teamwork and shared decision making:

Competition makes it difficult to share our skills,

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experiences and resources because each person is

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separately involved in his or her exclusive goal. In our

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schools and work places, students and employees are
often taught to regard each other not as potential
collaborators, but rather as opponents, rivals, and
obstacles to their own success.
Benefits of Cooperation

 Openness, Trust and Safety:

Often competition—in work and play—results in arguments,

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hurt feelings and separation. Many games are based on

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secrecy and intimidation resulting in players feeling unsafe. In

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work or play, people really want and need to feel safe, be
open and honest, and above all, feel trusted. Cooperative
situations help create that atmosphere, because participants
give encouragement and support of one another.
Benefits of Cooperation

 Self worth and personal power:

Cooperativeness has been linked to greater learning,

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emotional maturity and strong personal identity.

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Participants often become more flexible in their

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thinking and willingness to invent creative solutions.
The result is enjoyment, personal confidence and a
feeling of self-worth
Benefits of Cooperation

 Employee well-being:

Most competitive situations are highly stressful; the

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anxiety. The fear or anger generated from being

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eliminated or losing often causes embarrassment, tension

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and hostility. Cooperative activities are non-threatening
and non-judgmental. As a result, this creates an
atmosphere for relaxation and well–being–the foundation
for more genuine, healthy and playful fun.
Benefits of Competition

 Decision making:

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The decision on simultaneous cooperation and
competition with a competitor is one of the most

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important aspects which managers in the modern

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business world address with efficiency. Most of them
choose this type of relationship due to the significant
benefits derived from competition.
Benefits of Competition

 Complementary resources:

Enterprises declare their willingness to create

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competitive relationships to obtain complementary

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resources, especially non-tangible ones or those that

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are otherwise unavailable. Synergy effects take place
between complementary resources, which make the
systems of these resources more valuable and more
difficult for other competitors to imitate.
Benefits of Competition

 Organizational efficiency:

Coopetition also stimulates the innovation of partners

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and the development of technology. In accordance with

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the resource-based concept, enterprises declare their

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will to create competitive relationships in order to
jointly create intangible assets, including the ability to
transfer and use their knowledge, cooperation, and
skills to increase the efficiency of the organization.
Benefits of Competition

 Cost benefit:

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Competitive cooperation allows companies to achieve

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economies of scale and range. The benefits of coverage,
not only in the geographical sense, but also in terms of

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the expansion of the market, that are also increasingly
indicated. Coopetition reduces operational costs among
others, by reducing the risk of functioning.
Benefits of Competition

 Creation of organizational values:

Competitive relationships contribute to the creation of

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values, the dynamic development of companies, and an

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increase in the value of coopetitors. Often, competitive

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relationships are made of a defensive nature; in
addition to strengthening market position, competitive
relationships also protect market position and increase
entry barriers for non-system entities.
Benefits of Competition
 Incentivize the team:

Although salary is a strong component in finding and keeping

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are often motivated to move into the next gear with other

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incentives for which competition makes a difference. One would

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think that people are motivated by money, and that a good
paycheck is incentive enough to do a good job. However, there
are other incentives beyond money also which motivate people.
Benefits of Competition

 Quality work :

Competitive environments fuel creativity and

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productivity, generating a higher quality of work. When

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someone wants to win, he is more likely to look at a

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variety of solutions to any problem. Business leaders
need to give employees enough freedom to use
instincts and to problem solve to most effectively take
advantage of this competitive workplace benefit
Benefits of Competition

 Diversification of risk:

Competing in multiple markets allows the risk to be spread out

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among many economies and customers. It is common that every

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business operation is affected by international markets, some

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companies conduct a great volume of business overseas for their
risk diversification. If a firm is completely dependent on one
country, negative events in that country could ruin the firm.
Business risk is reduced when a firm is involved in multiple countries
Drawbacks of Competition

 Anxiety and stress:

Anxiety and stress happens when people are doubtful of their

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performance and relative outcome in competition.. To address

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the increasing anxiety, managers should remind everyone in the

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department that teamwork is the primary goal for the entire
department.
Drawbacks of Competition

 Poor team morale:

Managers can't use competitive environment alone to

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generate more productivity, because teams with poor bonds

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will resort to backstabbing and undermining behaviors to

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prevent others from getting the advantage. When a team
loses morale, their team productivity also goes down.
Competitive environments must be fostered with
communications and team-building workshops.
Drawbacks of Competition

 Fear and doubt:

When there are strong competitors, the new entrants will

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lose business to them, often frequently. That increases sales

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costs, time to close, and makes it harder to grow rapidly.

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Competitors will also spread fear and doubt in the
marketplace. This is particularly galling. Some of that crazy
competitors stuck around for a long time and hurt portfolio
company in the market.
Drawbacks of Cooperation

 Less operational control:

One of the drawbacks of cooperation mainly in business

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cooperatives is that each member’s reduced control over how

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he/she operates the business.

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Drawbacks of Cooperation

 Fewer incentives:

Cooperative businesses have fewer incentives for large

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investors when attracting capital. As a result, they aren’t that

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appealing to those wealthy investors. They will mostly attract

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smaller investors, while the larger ones generally stay away
after knowing that the size of their investment does not
determine the size of their influence.
Competition and Cooperation in Social Perspective

 The individual goals of self-concern and other-concern help explain

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to social interaction dilemmas.

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 The solutions to social dilemmas are more favorable when the

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outcomes are integrative rather than fixed-sum.
 Conflict is sometimes realistic, in the sense that the goals of the
interacting parties really are incompatible. But in many cases,
conflicts are more perceived than realistic.
Competition and Cooperation in Social Perspective

 Our reactions to conflict are influenced by harm-based morality

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status hierarchy, deciding that they deserve what little they have, a

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phenomenon known as false consciousness. Individuals with low

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status who to do not accept the procedural fairness of the system
may use social creativity strategies or them may resort to collective
action.
REFERENCES

 Aswathappa, K.(2014). Organisational Behaviour, Text, Cases Games. Himalaya Publishing

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House, Mumbai
 Luthans, F. (2011). Organizational Behavior: An Evidence-based Approach, Published by

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McGraw-Hill/Irwin,
 Stoner, A.F. (1984). Management, Prentice-Hall, New Delhi

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 Cherrington, D.J. (1989). Organisational Behaviour, Allyn and Beacon, Boston, USA
 White, D.D. and Bednar D.A. (1986). Organisational Behaviour, Allyn and Beacon, Boston, USA
 Cutlip Scott. M , Center, A. H. (1952). Effective Public Relations, Pearson Prentice Hall, USA
 Judge, Timothy A., Robbins, Stephen P. (2017). Organizational behavior-Pearson Education
Limited
CONCLUSION

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In the conclusion of this lecture session, we may recap the
discussion held on benefits and drawbacks of cooperation

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and competition which may be very much helpful to learners.
They will obtain knowledge on the overall discussions made

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in this session. This is the end of this week lecture on
competition and cooperation.
In upcoming Iecture I will be discussing about the leadership
issues . Till then enjoy the learning, thank you all.
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