Studying the performance and agility of individuals using cooperative and competitive incentives

Cooperation and competition have frequently been compared to determine the impact on performance measures such as productivity and quality. A modern characteristic that is sought after is agility, which is defined as success in a turbulent environment. This research builds on past studies of cooperation and competition by including agility as a key performance measure. An experiment was conducted in which a group of individuals with cooperative incentives and another group with competitive incentives experienced alternating stable and turbulent environments. Statistically significant differences were found for completion times and overall scores for the stable versus turbulent trials, and for product quality and cleanliness for the cooperative versus competitive treatments. The cooperative individuals scored better in every category except agility. These results suggest that individuals working cooperatively can create higher quality products; however, competitive incentives may help achieve agility. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Hum Factors Man 17: 105–115, 2007.