Richard Goodale, replying to my message expressing my views on employee
ranking, asked:
"Can you give me any empirical or anecdotal evidence to support your
belief in the antithetical nature of cooperation and competition?"
I believe that the terms are antithetical by definition. I defer to
Webster:
Competition - a contest between rivals.
Cooperation - the act or process of cooperating.
Cooperate - to associate with another or others for mutual, often
economic, benefit.
Alfie Kohn defines two types of competition:
Structural competition refers to a situation in which the process divides
the participants into two categories: winners and losers.
Intentional competition refers to the desire on the part of an individual
to be number one.
I can understand that within formal competitive situations, the
participants must cooperate on setting the rules of the game, i.e. we all
agree not to intentionally cause physical injury to the opponent. I
cannot understand how within a competitive situation participants would
actually help their rivals or strive to work cooperatively for what
Webster calls "mutual benefit". Did Dean Smith, North Carolina basketball
coach, often counsel his arch-rival at Duke? If a Coca-Cola chemist was
having trouble with the beverage formula, would he call Pepsi for help?
Best regards,
Roxanne
--Roxanne Abbas mailto:rabbas@comp-web.com http://www.comp-web.com
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