Putting The “Us” In “Autonomous”: The Effects of Cooperation and Competition On Autonomy

Authors:

Abstract: Despite the importance of autonomy and the ubiquity of both cooperation and competition within organizations, how cooperation and competition influence employees’ feelings of autonomy is unclear. In separate surveys of varsity athletes, full-time employees, and federal employees, along with a controlled experiment wherein participants completed a task under competitive or competitive incentive structures, we consistently found that cooperation (vs. competition) was associated with greater autonomy. The association between cooperation and autonomy was explained by lower levels of stress and greater levels of psychological safety. Additionally, we observed that cooperation was indirectly related to greater intrinsic motivation, lower turnover intentions, greater job engagement, and greater job satisfaction through greater feelings of autonomy. These results suggest that it may be in organizations’ best interests to cultivate a climate of cooperation instead of a climate of competition.

Track: ORG

Keywords: competition, cooperation, interdependence, autonomy, well-being