Work competition is competition conducted by one individual with another individual or a group with other groups that aim to be superior to its competitors. The world of work competition is not a competition that uses force or violence, but uses intelligence, skills and expertise to be able to produce new achievements that make an individual or group superior to its competitors.

Competition in the world of work is believed to increase motivation , productivity and individual or team performance. Not only that, job competition is also believed to provide strong accountability and validation. More specifically, work competition can improve team performance for the better because all team members will feel compelled to be better than their competitors together.

Examples of Job Competition in the Business World or the World of Work

We can find many examples that illustrate work competition in the business world or the world of work. For example, trying to produce an innovative product that has never been on the market. We can also take the example of labor market competition, where each candidate is competing to get a job.

Competition in work is also very useful when we want to increase quarterly sales . For example, a company can increase quarterly sales by holding a competition among the sales team. The employee who can sell the most items (products) in the quarter will get a special gift from the company. Don’t forget to give a special prize for the winner, for example free holiday tickets to Bali for three days and two nights.

With this kind of work competition, every marketing or marketing employee will definitely think as smart as possible in order to get the best strategy in selling existing products and achieving the highest number of sales. From this example, we can also see that competition and work ethics are related to one another. Only serious people can win work competitions.

What is the Rival (Rival) Role in a Job Competition? 

In fact, the presence of work competition alone will not be enough to increase individual productivity and motivation. The presence of rivals, competitors or competitors is needed to increase productivity and motivation. A Professor of Psychology named Jillene Grover Seiver, PhD said that “You need a rival”. This statement was delivered by Seiver based on research conducted on professional archers who showed more maximum performance when their main competitors were present in the competition. He compared archers whose competitors were not present in the competition but had very low motivation.

Likewise in the work environment, managers tend to put their employees who have the same skills and talents into a competition. The goal is that they have the same motivation and performance drive to be at the forefront. Logically, when we see other people having the same abilities as us, then we will improve our abilities and skills to achieve the best results.

Work competition can have a positive influence on motivation

According to Craig Dike (a clinical psychologist and clinical assistant at Doctor on Demand) said that, “competition can encourage all species to survive, and this condition will encourage biological and psychological evolution”.

Now we already know that competition is really needed in life so we can move forward, experience growth and create amazing innovations. So, we are not left behind by other people who continue to adapt to change.

Work competition can also affect extrinsic motivation, where appreciation or appreciation from outsiders will make us more excited and motivated to move forward and create various achievements. For example, promotions from managers, free holiday vouchers on weekends, and so on.

Eits! Work competition is not only related to extrinsic motivation. Individuals will also have intrinsic motivation when entering into work competition. For example, they will have some personal goals to be achieved in a career such as, achieving promotion, becoming a superior employee in the office, and so forth.

In short, both internally and externally, work competition can help improve motivation, productivity, and performance in a person.

There is one other fact that Career Career colleagues need to know that competition participants will feel more motivated when they join smaller competitions. A study conducted in 2009 by Stephen Garcia and Avishalom showed that competition would be the most motivating thing when there were only a few competitors (players) in it. In this study, the researchers asked students to take a short quiz where the winner condition was that the top 20% of students who succeeded in answering the questions most quickly and accurately would get $ 5 as a prize. In this competition, one group was told that they would compete with 100 other students and the other group was also told that they would compete with 10 other students. How is the result? Participants in smaller groups (only 10 competitors) are superior to those who compete with more students. Winners succeed in answering quiz questions faster than other participants because they feel more motivated by the smaller number of competitors.

Work Competition can Increase Brain Power

When we join in a competition, the power of our brain will increase because we will continue to encourage the brain to think about powerful strategies that can be used in winning competition or competition .

When we win a job competition, our brain centers are activated and produce a flow of dopamine (a pleasant feeling hormone) in the hypothalamus or brain pleasure center. After our brains face busy in a tight work competition and win the competition, our brain will be motivated to experience it again and again. In other words, we will like work competition.

Unfortunately, Seiver found that people who had failed to compete in work competition tended to stay away from any competition. The brain’s reward center can only be activated if we do difficult tasks.

For those who do not enjoy work competition, challenges can be a great way to increase the working power of the brain in a competitive work environment. In other words, forcing ourselves to be involved in work competitions will help us to improve the working power of the brain.

Work Competition can Increase Productivity

In addition, work competition is also believed to increase the productivity of every individual who joins in it. Individuals who are competing will spend more time at work and strive to produce far more achievements than before.

Maintain Healthy Work Competition

Work competition often raises suspicion between one individual with another individual or one group with another group, because every individual and group would want to win. Such conditions can damage team cohesiveness and foster negative feelings among coworkers.

However, that does not mean that healthy work competition cannot be created. By holding a supportive work competition, we are tantamount to injecting some positive elements in avoiding the frustration that builds up among coworkers or competitors. In other words, supportive attitude is very necessary in a healthy work competition.