Competition within a group

This week we talked about competition and cooperation, which is also a pair of paradox. On one hand, we want to be in a group and cooperate to achieve our common goal better, while on the other hand, we want to stand out from the group and be the star. Either too much competition or too much cooperation will hurt the efficiency of the group. Therefore, we are often in the struggle to balance cooperation and competition in group life.

In our discussion of the negative effects of competition within a group, several aspects were brought up. First, it confuses member about the group's goal. Competitions with in a group are partially resulted from the differences between the group goal and the individuals' goals. When competitions get intense, group members may care too much about the realization of their personal goals  and neglect the big picture. As a result, the group goal may be blurred. Second, it hinders the honest communication and normal interaction among group members. When be in competitions, individuals are usually reluctant to share information and afraid that others will use those information against them. Instead of working as one group, people may form several sub-groups to compete on their interest. Consequently, the group's energy will be distracted. When the competition is between the leaders of the group, it hurts much more in both the two aspects.  I had experienced that in our Students Union.

As I mentioned in our class, I served as the Vice President in the Student Union in my college, and was in a competition with the President, Chen. Since the first semester in that position, I tried in many ways to show my leadership and authority over the group by leading meetings, taking part in making decisions and implementing them. When the competition got intense in the end of the semester, I sometimes made decisions without her permission in advance, but just informed her about the decision aftermath. I knew that it upset her a lot sometimes, but I felt good when I was the one who contributed the most to my beloved organization and enjoyed the appreciation I thought I deserved.

However, one thing happened in the beginning of the second semester and changes my attitude. I texted all the leaders of the Student Union and each department about the meeting arrangement, and Chen replied saying that the time had to be changes for some reasons. Automatically I thought that she replied to all those who I texted to,  and felt offended. I texted her to explain why the meeting had to be at that time, and sent another message to all leaders to ask them ignore Chen's message and to reaffirm the meeting time. Soon after my second message, anther Vise President called me and pointed out my mistake. At that moment, I felt so humiliated and ashamed, because I just realized I was tearing my organization apart.

Looking back to the period of our competition, I realized how much confusion and miscommunication I had caused in the group. When in the competition, one of my individual goal was to outshine Chen, and be the super star in the group. Therefore, although I loved my organization so much, and want to do whatever that served it best, my judgement was severely biased because I didn't want to implement what Chen said. Inevitably, I rejected some very good ideas from her, which might have a negative impact on the organization. The competition confused my judgement, but also other group members'. In the text message mistake, the receivers must had been confused by the two messages because the second did not make sense to them. They might not be sure about when the meeting should be, and might wonder what had happened between Chen and me. In a word, the unhealthy competition led to a series of misunderstand and questions.

While there were questions, no one asked them or tried to clarify them because of the obvious tension among the two leaders, Chen and me. Chen and I never had a open conversation about our competition, and always maintained a smile in front of others. We communicated less and less when co-leading a project, which resulted in poor quality and pointless effort. Gradually, it became apparent that although we are both competent for our tasks,  whenever we need to cooperate closely, we messed up the task. The negative feelings went beyond our work place and reached our personal life. Before we got the position, we were close and hung out together with the same group of friends. However, due to the escalating competition, we hung out much less and had separate groups of friends.

With the realization that how I was not contributing to the group but destroying it, I decided to step back and respect her position as she deserved. What made me delighted was that when retiring from the position, I was appreciated for my contribution no less than Chen or other Vise President. It was a fantastic learning experience, and I feel grateful that I had it in my college but not my real job.