Cooperative and Competitive Dynamics Within and Between Organizational Units

Abstract

Goal interdependence has been theorized to affect collaboration both within and between groups. Thirty-nine employees of a public health agency were interviewed on specific interactions they had with those either in their own or another work unit. Consistent with previous experiments, employees who concluded that their goals were cooperative had trusting expectations, exchanged information and resources, worked efficiently and productively, and developed confidence for future collaboration. Interactions with competitive goals were characterized by suspicion, little exchange, and low productivity and morale. Results were interpreted as suggesting that independent goals interfere more with interaction between work units than within them.