Company: using rivalry, yes, but not just any way
9 September 2013
Read by 2316 persons
BUSINESS - Here is a study that should challenge bosses whose small business is struggling to operate at full capacity. To improve the productivity of its employees, it would suffice to get them riled up, using a timeless method, rivalry. But not just any way.
A new study conducted jointly by the University of Exeter, Amherst College and the University of Stirling has just shown that employees of a company recovered better from their poor results when their direct competitors commented on their failure.
Faced with external criticism, employees would indeed try harder to prove their detractors wrong. Conversely, if the criticism comes from within the company, employees then enter a negative spiral and their performance continues to decline. In short, to increase employee performance, nothing beats establishing a commando spirit encouraging the "we" in opposition to the "others".
Rivalry is not necessarily destructive
This process that can be applied in many areas where performance is essential. Tim Rees, the lead author of the study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, stated that prudent management of underperformance was "often key in activities such as elite sport and business".
"The study shows that simple and low-cost measures can easily reverse a negative spiral by acting on intergroup dynamics and playing on healthy rivalry with external competition," he indicated.
To reach this conclusion, the researchers devised a small experiment. Eighty university athletes aged 18 to 23 were invited to throw darts blindfolded. Their results were then commented on either by researchers affiliated with their university or by researchers working for competing institutions.
The scientists then found that participants who received negative comments from a researcher at their own university accepted it without flinching, while those who were criticized by a member of another university were more determined to prove them wrong.
"Our research shows that the 'us against them' mentality is not always negative and destructive. It can sometimes be the key to remotivating you and improving your performance," said Jessica Salvatore of Amherst College. For Pete Coffee, of the University of Stirling, it highlights above all "the need for sports coaches and business leaders to seriously consider how they provide feedback in case of declining productivity". Food for thought.
Posted on September 9, 2013.
Huffingtonpost.fr
A new study conducted jointly by the University of Exeter, Amherst College and the University of Stirling has just shown that employees of a company recovered better from their poor results when their direct competitors commented on their failure.
Faced with external criticism, employees would indeed try harder to prove their detractors wrong. Conversely, if the criticism comes from within the company, employees then enter a negative spiral and their performance continues to decline. In short, to increase employee performance, nothing beats establishing a commando spirit encouraging the "we" in opposition to the "others".
Rivalry is not necessarily destructive
This process that can be applied in many areas where performance is essential. Tim Rees, the lead author of the study published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, stated that prudent management of underperformance was "often key in activities such as elite sport and business".
"The study shows that simple and low-cost measures can easily reverse a negative spiral by acting on intergroup dynamics and playing on healthy rivalry with external competition," he indicated.
To reach this conclusion, the researchers devised a small experiment. Eighty university athletes aged 18 to 23 were invited to throw darts blindfolded. Their results were then commented on either by researchers affiliated with their university or by researchers working for competing institutions.
The scientists then found that participants who received negative comments from a researcher at their own university accepted it without flinching, while those who were criticized by a member of another university were more determined to prove them wrong.
"Our research shows that the 'us against them' mentality is not always negative and destructive. It can sometimes be the key to remotivating you and improving your performance," said Jessica Salvatore of Amherst College. For Pete Coffee, of the University of Stirling, it highlights above all "the need for sports coaches and business leaders to seriously consider how they provide feedback in case of declining productivity". Food for thought.
Posted on September 9, 2013.
Huffingtonpost.fr
