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Harvard University’s Management Magazine has been published for a century and combines research and data-based articles. Its authors include the best international management and business experts in a variety of fields, including leadership, negotiation, strategy, marketing, finance and operations. Harvard Business Review articles are translated and published in Globes three times a week: Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays (G Magazine).
About the Authors: Randall S. Peterson and Christine J. in glory
Randall s. Peterson is a professor of organizational behavior at the London Business School and the founding director of the school’s leadership institute. Kristin J. Bepar, organizational behavior researcher and visiting professor at the London Business School
Let us acknowledge an uncomfortable fact about the workplace: Successful people are the ones who know how to collaborate on the one hand, and at the same time compete with colleagues. They understand how labor relations affect their interests and those of the entire organization, know how to weigh risks versus profit and decide how much to invest in each colleague and when to set boundaries.
We have been researching rivalries in labor relations for more than 25 years, and have found that the way people treat them has a critical impact on careers. Seemingly easy to determine if a relationship is positive or negative. In practice, almost all relationships are a combination of the two, and require thought and management. To do this effectively, you need to understand where you are located on a spectrum that has one end of conflict and the other of cooperation. Once you understand the type of relationship between you and your peers, you can use different tactics to manage them. All the cases presented in the article are hypothetical, but have been drawn from real scenarios.
Conflicts and borderline situations
Conflict – In a direct confrontation, whoever is standing in front of you is actually trying to take something you want or need. Jim and Jane, for example, are both vying for senior management positions in a capital management company. Jane has worked for months to nurture a prospect, and if she succeeds, it can be a crucial factor in deciding whether she will be promoted. Suddenly she discovers that Jim is also trying to sign him a client, even though he knows he’s already on her target, so the relationship between them is strained.
To manage the situation, Jane can start by examining a colleague’s strengths. What can the customer appreciate about Jim not having Jane, and what can she do to change that? It also needs to re-examine the importance of the issue in dispute. Is the deal really essential to its promotion? Next she must consider ways to work around the problem or initiate countermeasures. Maybe she could reach out to Jim’s prospects, and use that as a lever in discussing how they can both create and respect boundaries? In a conflict relationship one needs to know what to protect and what is not possible, given the circumstances. Conflict has a price, so you should work collaboratively with allies and not deal alone.
competition This type of rivalry is common in workplaces where it is common to allocate wages and opportunities through assessment and comparison of employee performance. Michael and Allen were asked by their manager to lead together a development project of the company’s new diversity, equality and inclusion program. Michael wants to work collaboratively with Allen, but he’s very skeptical, as she has a reputation as someone who throws colleagues under the bus in difficult situations.
The right step in such cases is to identify where your and the competitor’s goals are compatible, and from there take action to improve the chances of good results. For example, neither Michael nor Allen want this project to fail. In any conversation with her he will want to emphasize the common goals and the importance of achieving them as a team. Perhaps he can curb her competitive behavior by eliminating scenarios in which she may be tempted to undermine him. One option would be to convince her that their bosses – and not they – should present the results. By identifying the thing that feeds the rival, one can find a way to reduce it.
Independence – At the center of the spectrum is independence, which helps reduce your dependence on others as much as possible. That is, avoid the problem instead of trying to fix it. Take for example Scott, who felt that his colleague Nigel was bullying him. To avoid dealing with Nigel, Scott asked his boss to redefine their responsibilities so they would call less often.
One of the challenges with this approach is that it is difficult to maintain over time. We do not recommend it. Instead, people in Scott’s situation should consider treating the relationship as a conflict or a competition.
Collaborations and interdependence
Cooperation – In a collaborative relationship both parties share common interests and interests, but also hold separate interests, so you choose to work together on specific issues where the interests match, rather than compete in places they do not.
For example, Muhammad and Roberto, colleagues entrusted with the unification of their expertise in Brazil, Russia, India and China to produce an economic forecast for their organization. The risks here are much lower than in conflict or competition relationships. The main danger is that things can change. To deal with such a situation, they can agree in the first place on justifiable reasons for reducing or terminating their commitment to the project, and undertake to give each other prior notice.
Working together – The result of many mutual interests. This is the situation that Sarah and Miriam found themselves in, when their employers assigned them the task of leading a small pilot project together, which combined Sarah’s company-coach coaching technology with the rich coaching experience and Miriam’s client list.
While such relationships guarantee the highest mutual gain, it is most difficult to break away from them if the interests change, since the resources of the parties involved are interdependent. So already at an early stage, Sarah and Miriam need to develop plans in advance for different scenarios.
We all navigate through a variety of rivalries and collaborations at work. Conflict and competition inevitably arise between peers, but success depends on relationship management. Do it right, and both you and the organization will benefit.
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