Beyond The Call: Why Some of Your Team Go the Extra Mile and Others Don't Show

6.

FAIR’S FAIR

‘In our hearts and in our laws, we must treat all our people with fairness and dignity.’

Bill Clinton

In business, competition is considered highly desirable, indeed necessary for the optimal functioning of markets and the economy. So much so, that many organizations have imported competition as an ethos into their organization. Employees compete against each other in various aspects of the business, pitting business unit against business unit, team against team. The competitive ethos engrained in some organizations runs all the way down to setting employee against employee. There are companies, for example, that rank employees on performance with a fixed percentage at the bottom discarded on a regular basis.

However, while a climate of competition inside an organization may bring some benefits, if not managed carefully it can also create a culture and environment that discourages discretionary effort, and negatively impacts on the performance of the organization. Especially if it leads employees to feel that they are being unfairly dealt with.

One of my clients, for example, prides itself on generating internal competition. For some time now it has rewarded employees based on how they perform compared to their contemporaries, rather than measuring and rewarding performance against a specified goal or objective.

Unfortunately this model means that you can perform exceptionally well but still be at the bottom of the ranking system and therefore the reward system. ...