The Dark Side of Competition for Status

Gary Charness, David Masclet () and Marie Claire Villeval

No 1431, Working Papers from Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon St-Étienne (GATE Lyon St-Étienne), Université de Lyon

Abstract: Unethical behavior within organizations is not rare. We investigate experimentally the role of status-seeking behavior in sabotage and cheating activities aiming at improving one’s performance ranking in a flat-wage environment. We find that average effort is higher when individuals are informed about their relative performance. However, ranking feedback also favors disreputable behavior. Some individuals do not hesitate to incur a cost to improve their rank by sabotaging others’ work or by increasing artificially their own performance. Introducing sabotage opportunities has a strong detrimental effect on performance. Therefore, ranking incentives should be used with care. Inducing group identity discourages sabotage among peers but increases in-group rivalry.

Keywords: Status; ranking; feedback; sabotage; doping; competitive preferences; experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 C92 D63 J28 J31 M54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp, nep-hrm and nep-lab
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (197)

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ftp://ftp.gate.cnrs.fr/RePEc/2014/1431.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Dark Side of Competition for Status (2014)
Working Paper: The Dark Side of Competition for Status (2014)
Working Paper: The Dark Side of Competition for Status (2013)
Working Paper: The Dark Side of Competition for Status (2012)
Working Paper: The Dark Side of Competition for Status (2012)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gat:wpaper:1431

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