Bringing Competition Back: Competition and Collaboration Within and Between Organizations

In the organizational literature, when scholars consider collaborative arrangements– at the organization, group, or individual level – they seldom simultaneously consider the competitive dynamics that are also at play. Further, while competition is at the foundation of much of the macro/strategy literature, it gets scant attention in more micro arenas. In this symposium, we bring competition back into the discussion, at both the micro and macro levels. The symposium has two primary purposes: (1) To (re)introduce the concept of interpersonal competition within organizations. What shapes interpersonal competition, how is it motivated and perceived and what are its consequences? (2) To understand the interplay of competition and collaboration, at both the macro and micro levels. Four empirical papers, covering a wide variety of settings, methods, and levels of analysis, shed light on these and other related questions. Comparing and Being Compared: Social Comparison and Evaluation Apprehension in Competition ...