Parks and Stone found that unselfish colleagues come to be resented because they "raise the bar" for what is expected of everyone. As a result, workers feel the new standard will make everyone else look bad
Please. People don't like others who raise the bar. This is not news. The same thing can be said about co-workers that work harder. Sure others don't like them because during the performance review they will be compared to them.
How much don't they like others? Under what circumstances? Why? are all people like this? Is there a way to model this behavior?
The same thing can be said about co-workers that work harder. Sure others don't like them because during the performance review they will be compared to them.
What if the co-workers were good friends? What if the co-workers made the team look good? What if the co-workers were charismatic and sincere? What if the co-workers had done significant favors for each of the 'others' individually?
A lot of science is carefully proving and describing the obvious.
Now, I don't know if this study succeeded is doing so based on the article ... but in general, when common knowledge is distilled to precise facts it becomes something you can, e.g., use in software.
Social identity theory suggests that if a close friend excels in an area that is important to us, then we will feel threatened by them. But if they excel in an area not important to us, we will share in their success.
Research into basic desires also suggests that some people are competitive in nature, to the exclusion of others.
So to help you find an answer to your question:
Are we concerned about our performance on the job? Are we concerned about career advancement in general?
Are the person(s) in question a competitive (i.e. vengeful) personality? What about the rest of the team? Americans are notable for having one of the most competitive cultures in the West, whereas Germany has one of the least.
I think the interesting thing about technical work is that the real productivity gains are not in working harder, but in using better methods. If your co-worker is way more effective at a technical job, you can usually learn from her and become more effective yourself, without working much or any harder...
I think this is an important distinction... if my co-worker raises the bar by working harder, then yeah, I'm expected to work harder. but if my co-worker brings more effective methods? suddenly I become very interested in learning from this co-worker.
I agree with you, but I am also hesitant to say that we are in the majority of people. When someone does something more efficiently I am all ears just like you. I don't think that the majority of people distinguish hard worker and more efficient worker though so the two get lumped into the category of "makes me look bad."
usually those companies become primarily sales oriented rather than technology oriented. Take Oracle. Yeah, they have some technology... and they even develop some new stuff. But primarily they work in sales. A less radical example would be Microsoft.
The problem with the cya approach is that it minimizes the risk for any particular individual, not for the organization as a whole. They don't take the option that is least likely to fail, they take the option that is least likely to bite them personally in the ass if it does fail.
If you are learning from this person, if they are raising your market value, you'd have a pretty strong incentive to not "vote them off the island"
And really, what I've seen is that this plays out socially, too, at least in heavily technical departments. People who are really into technology enjoy spending time with people who are really good.
of course, many people don't seem to be as conscious as I am of the fact that the job market is very much larger than any one job... just keeping up with the next guy might not get me ahead much at this company (assuming I'm just keeping up, and not passing the guy) but if that guy I'm keeping up with is really good, I'm vastly improving my market value to another company that might not have the really good person already.
Really, I think alternating between being the new guy and the expert is pretty good for your career development, if you can pull it off, and unless you are an extreme outlier in either direction, you should be able to do so; both terms are defined relative to the rest of the team.
Please. People don't like others who raise the bar. This is not news. The same thing can be said about co-workers that work harder. Sure others don't like them because during the performance review they will be compared to them.