Cooperative Competition: Possibly Oxymoronic But Definitely Smart
Abstract
The ability to negotiate well is has become critically important in today's Air Force. Collaborative approaches to negotiations generally produce results superior to competitive approaches, and are receiving emphasis in Air Force professional education and deployment training. This relatively new focus, however, brings up an important issue. Will the emphasis on collaboration undermine the essential competitive martial spirit of the Air Force, or is some type of balance between competition and collaboration needed? This paper uses a problem/solution approach to research to explore this question. A study of published works demonstrates the need for both competition and collaboration in a military context, and also provides relevant case studies from negotiations in Iraq and Afghanistan. This paper supports the idea that competition and collaboration are not mutually exclusive, but that cooperative competition (as opposed to conquest competition) can provide benefits as a guiding principle in the Air Force. Cooperative competition emphasizes the joint pursuit of a goal, while conquest competition describes a destructive, zero-sum approach to problem solving. This paper also discusses the importance of power in military negotiations, which frequently involve negotiating from a position of power, but without absolute power to impose one's will. This paper concludes by recommending the inclusion of cooperatively competitive ideas in all levels of Air Force professional military education. It states specific cultural and power aspects of negotiations should be addressed prior to deployments. It further suggests the Air Force should apply cooperative competition to the promotions and performance reporting processes (as examples) to motivate through competition without encouraging destructive behavior.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA538881
Entities
People
- Matthew M. Groves
Organizations
- Air Command and Staff College