They feel there should be more focus on collaboration and working together

Some competition between staff can be healthy – with some caveats. The people who benefit most from competition are generally the ones who stand a chance of winning it – the others are unlikely to invest much energy. Worse, most people’s performance actually deteriorates when they are playing for a sizeable prize. The problem here is the same as that created by numerical targets generally – the target becomes the main focus, rather than the real work. Also, if the prize is big enough, the anxiety about not getting it reduces people’s ability to perform intelligently. The only things that are any real use to a company are the things that add value for the customer. From this perspective rivalries are a waste of our time and energy, and the only viable competition is one in which we try to meet the customers’ needs better than our rivals can.