When rivalry goes remote: Why office competition is risky

“Promoting office rivalry creates a more political atmosphere at work that hinders collaboration and it can contribute to employee burnout. This results in lower productivity and potentially higher employee turnover. Lower context interactions (e.g., Zoom, email) are more likely to cause misunderstandings and emotional reactions. Further, being remote offers fewer opportunities to address associated problems, so they likely would grow and contribute to work conflict and stress. Healthy competition is when people working together raise the performance of each other and the focus is on something external.”

Dr. David King, Department of Management Chair and Higdon Associate Professor of Management

Areas of expertise: Strategic management, merger and acquisition integration and performance, innovation, complementary resources, corporate entrepreneurship, technology transfer and government policy.