窝里斗值不值得提倡？

    格洛特咨询公司（Grote Consulting）董事长迪克•格洛特表示，实际上，公司可以采用竞赛的方式来鼓励人们通力合作。格洛特曾与百事可乐公司合作过。他表示百事可乐公司管理层的做法是，员工的年终奖有40%要取决于他们是否帮助有前途的同事获得良好发展。格洛特称，如果把与同事的合作也作为评价员工的标准，人们就会彼此协作。

    格洛特声称，末位淘汰制和其他竞争性措施的好处之一是，公司管理者们不得不对员工进行评估，而很多高管在这一点上做得并不好。

    可选择的方式有很多。企业并不一定都要鼓励员工争当合伙人。全球咨询集团汉彬洲公司（North Highland）首席执行官丹•瑞尔敦称：“如果我们实行‘不升职就离职’的模式，可能有些最出色的咨询师会被迫离开。”

    汉彬洲公司的做法是让优秀的咨询师安心做咨询，由其他人担负通常由合伙人承担的销售额等任务。瑞尔敦还表示，公司的所有员工都拥有股权而不仅仅局限于合伙人。“同事间拥有更多情谊是我们公司文化核心内容的一部分。我们希望员工们都能关注客户的成功，而不是个人的成功。”

    考虑是否要鼓励内部竞争时，文化其实是最重要的因素。塞利诺表示，管理者总是希望能找到最好的经验和方法，有些公司可能会采用末位淘汰制的方法。“有些公司采用这种做法获得了成功，但如果希望移植这种做法，则不见得一定会奏效，甚至有可能搞砸。”

    缓解公司激烈的内部竞争有很多办法可循，但是，要把一家公司的内部环境从彼此协作转变为残酷竞争却很难做到。而且，鉴于很多公司都已经从集中力量、通力合作中尝到了甜头，他们不见得会这么干。

    译者：李玫晓/汪皓

    But companies can actually use a competition to encourage a collaborative environment, says Dick Grote, chairman and CEO of Grote Consulting. Grote has worked with PepsiCo (PEP), and he says management there bases 40% of an employee's annual bonus on how well he or she helps promising colleagues develop their careers at the company. People will collaborate when they're ranked on how well they work with others, Grote says.

    Grote claims that one of the benefits of forced ranking and other competitive measures is that it compels managers to actually assess their employees, which many top executives don't do well.

    But there are other options. There's nothing that says firms have to be structured to encourage everyone to strive for partner. "In an up–or-out model, the best consultants in the world get pushed out," says Dan Reardon, CEO of global consulting group North Highland.

    Reardon's firm takes a different approach, and allows good consultants to keep their jobs as consultants, while other people focus on responsibilities that typically fall to partners, such as sales. Also, Reardon says, all employees, not just partners, have equity in the company. "Part of the core of our culture at North Highland is to have more camaraderie. We want everybody focused on client success, not individual success."

    Culture is actually the most important factor when considering whether or not to encourage competition. Executives are always looking around for the best practices out there, says Serino, and some could consider forced ranking: "It's easy to become enamored of perceived success, but then when you try to transplant it, it potentially can get botched."

    While there are ways to take the edge off of a business that has a fiercely competitive environment, it's very difficult to turn a company that isn't cutthroat into one that is. And given the benefits many companies are finding from focusing on collaboration, you probably wouldn't want to anyway.