Cooperation and Competition within Organizations: A Multi-Level View

Abstract

In this article we examine simultaneous cooperation and competition within organizations, with a specific focus on teams and their members. We extend theory on how the different levels involved with ‘coopetition’ interact; how activity at one level influences activity at another level. Our approach of simulation-assisted theory building unpacks our overall contribution to understanding the multi-leveled nature of coopetition by illustrating three main insights. First, competition between two - or more - teams, encourages cooperation between team members who also compete with each other. Second, the relationship between value creation and appropriation is bidirectional; that is, creation at the level of the team influences appropriation at the level of the individual, and vice versa. Third, there are specific conditions under which selfishness, or ‘non-cooperation’, is optimal at the individual level, including the comparative extent of altruism at the team level, and the point in time at which such a strategy is leveraged. We primarily contribute to the coopetition literature. However, such theory also has implications for practice, as it informs managers how best to organize their teams for optimal value creation and performance.