Organizational success is acquired by firms by striking a balance between what they truly aspire to become and their ways and means in achieving that kind of aspiration. To this end, the members of an organization must have both collaborative features as well as competitive features in order to balance out this equation. Collaboration and competition among the individuals of an organization are among the critical elements that could help the firm achieve the organizational goals and consequently acquire success in the industry wherein it operates. To a certain extent, these two characteristics may be viewed as complete opposites and total extremes. It is the intention of this paper to justify this claim.
Collaboration has been catchword in recent times in the existing literature. The study of (1996) defined collaboration as the “organizational and inter-organizational structures where resource, power, and authority are shared and where people brought together to achieve common goals which could not be accomplished by a single individual or organization independently.” In looking at the said meaning of the term, this displays a characteristic of an individual to work hand-in-hand with other individuals with the use of their own strengths, skills and potentials to achieve a common goal. In this context, this goal is characterized by the collective goals of the organization.
Moreover, it is also a prerequisite for a collaborative characteristic of an individual to be voluntary. (2003) This prerequisite entails the person to be willingly cooperating with other individuals in the organization to achieve a common purpose. At this level, the corroborative characteristic of an individual in an organization reveals a level to which the said individual is not only capable of executing organizational activities using his own skills, but he is also willing and able to take advantage of the available resources provided by the other members of the organization. This synergistic characteristic of an individual makes him/her capable of establishing a collaborative project; find out the possible partners for the job; learn each of their core competencies; point out and understand the possible goals of the company; establish network relationships; and work together for a common purpose. (2003)
The context of being competitive used in this discussion rest on the idea that competition does not indicate the competitiveness of an individual towards another individual working within the same team, or organization for that matter. The competitive characteristic of an individual that is considered critical for the firm is its capability to display the competitive strength of the company. (1997) Since the term has been used in conjunction with the term collaboration, the use of the term competition reflects the level of competitive characteristics that could be displayed in a collective manner. This could be presented by the desire of the individual to show the potential of the firm as compared to other players in the industry.
This attribute of an individual could define whether the company he/she is in is a weak or strong competitor in the industry. If the level of competitive intensity present in an individual reflects a considerable damage, or even remarkable implications, on the chances of its rivals in the industry, then it is considered a strong competitor. (1997) Otherwise, if the competitive intensity presented by the individual has merely affected the rival’s chances in a minute level, then the company is a weak competitor. (1997)
Furthermore, a competitive individual is able to help the organization as a whole to build a competitive advantage on other players in the industry. The creation of such competitive advantage provides the organization the capability to increase the performance of the firm. ( 1999) In looking at this argument, it appears that competitive individuals in the organization are indeed important since they build the value of the firm towards its primary clients. This is done by collectively creating a value chain within the organization. (1999) It is when the customers recognize the value of the said firm to be much greater than that of those present in the industry that it is able to establish a competitive advantage. Thus, individuals who are capable of maintaining this kind of status for the organization are deemed important for the completion of company goals.
As stated in the earlier part of the paper, competitive and collaborative attributes of the individual appears to be at poles of each other. However, it is concluded in this discussions that these two attributes are indeed necessary prerequisites for employees in a firm. These two characteristics could complement each other and assist the firm it achieving its organizational goals. Employees are needed to be voluntarily able to cooperate with each other in order to carry out activities set out by the firm, be it in terms of operational activities or otherwise. Companies need people who can work jointly with other individuals and could maximize the potentials, skills, and strengths of the resources available to them. As stated in the said discussion, synergy is among these individuals is a primary necessity. Nevertheless, this attribute may well be futile without the drive given by the competitive attributes of an individual. Given, a company may possibly thrive with the synergistic characteristics of the operations of their firm, however this may only create a situation for the company wherein they could only break-even. The drive and motivation provided by the competitive features of an individual complements these synergistic characteristics in order to place the entire firm in a situation which is equally competitive in the industry. To this end, collaborative and competitive attributes are thus necessary not only for the firm to realize its organizational goals, but also to show its strength as a competitor in the industry it operates.
0 comments:
Post a Comment