Leadership

What Golf Can Teach Managers About Competition

By Jessica Stillman

Updated on: January 29, 2009 / 10:43 AM EST / MoneyWatch

The Find: A little healthy competition may be a good way to boost performance at the office, but research using PGA data suggests managers should think twice before including superstars in the mix.
The Source: A working paper by Jennifer Brown, a management professor at the Kellogg School.

The Takeaway: If you're an aspiring golfer, does competing against Tiger Woods hurt or hinder your game? One could argue that the proximity of a golf great would spur you to up your performance. On the other hand, standing next to a master is more than a little intimidating â€" you'll never win so why bother trying? Brown, a researcher at the Kellogg School, set out to investigate just what happens when you add star performers to the competitive mix. To find out she examined the scores of less stellar golfers participating in tournaments in which Woods did and did not compete. Golf, she argues, is "an excellent setting in which to examine tournament theory and superstars in rank-order events, since effort relates relatively directly to scores and performance measures are not confounded by team dynamics."

What's the bottom line? Superstars lower the performance of everyone else, with the data indicating that "the average first-round score for PGA players is approximately 0.2 strokes higher [worse] when Woods participates," with the difference not down to players employing riskier strategies or weather or course conditions. Translated to the world of management, the results indicate,

that companies that use tournament-style rewards programs need to understand that differences in skill-level among workers can substantially impact both the effectiveness of such programs and overall employee performance.

"If you have a superstar in your office and you're going to award a big prize to the top performer, and if everyone else in the office knows from the outset who's already clinched it, they may reduce their effort. They may think, 'Why bother trying in this contest which I am almost surely going to lose?'"

For the full explanation of the study and its implications, take a look at the complete article.

The Question: How could managers arrange a competition to eliminate superstars from the mix and produce the biggest bump in overall performance?

(Image of Tiger Woods by mandj98, CC 2.0)