Does Competing Outside of Work Harm Collaboration at Work?

Source: ESPN

What can we learn about collaboration at work from professional soccer players? A new study offers some fascinating insights.

First, why did scholars Thorsten Grohsjean, Henning Piezunka, and Maren Mickeler become interested in studying soccer players? They noted that people sometimes find themselves competing with their colleagues in settings outside of the workplace. For example, senior executives may find themselves sitting on the boards of directors of competing firms. They may be raising funds for non-profit organizations that are competing for the same grants from local foundations. Or, they may be donating to competing political candidates. Does this competition outside the workplace impact the interpersonal dynamic at work?   To answer this question, they adopted a novel research approach with the setting being professional soccer.   

Grohsjean, Piezunka, and Mickeler focused on the fact that many professional soccer teammates compete against each other during international tournaments such as the World Cup. Each teammate will play for his or her home country, and then they return to being teammates on their professional club the next season. The scholars decided to look at how World Cup competition affected collaboration among teammates the following season.  Specifically, they examined whether these teammates, who had competed against one another in the World Cup, would pass the ball more or less frequently when returning to their professional club the next season.  According to these scholars, "The average number of passes between treated players in the post-Cup season drops by about 11%." 

This startling finding suggests that we should be keenly aware of the potentially deleterious effects of competition among colleagues outside the workplace.  Spillover effects are real.