Not all forms of competition are the same in terms of ...
Competition as a Public Health Problem
By Pauline Vaillancourt Rosenau, Ph.D.
Professor
Management and Policy Sciences E-915
School of Public Health
1200 Herman Pressler
Houston Texas 77030
(713) 500-9491 Fax: (713) 500-9493
E-mail: pauline.rosenau@uth.tmc.edu
Prepared for presentation at the Annual meeting of the APHA, Philadelphia, November 2002
A B S T R A C T
The objective of this paper is to review existing research and specify the known public health consequences of various types of competition. The results of such a review suggest that competition is not as benign as has been commonly assumed. Certain forms of competition may have quite serious negative effects on human health and productivity. The dynamic by which they do so are known and have been extensively studied - for example, they increase stress at the individual level. Destructive competition may also exacerbate already existing inequality among individuals, within societies, and between countries. Increased inequality is one of several social determinants of health. While commonly assumed to generate incentives for increased productivity, scholars in several academic disciplines have called the evidence for such an effect into question. Organizations that restrict the level of internal competition are more productive and appear to have a more stable, more highly motivated workforce. A substantial portion of the population has been found to be more likely to function to full capacity where the level of competition is moderated. To assure that all individuals are provided the opportunity to lead healthy lives and produce to their full capacity requires reconsidering common educational practices and workplace organizational structures. Similarly at the global level limiting destructive, winner-take-all forms of competition may be necessary if all nations are to develop to full capacity in the long term and contribute to a healthy and productive international environment. There is little evidence that the current forms of unrestricted global competition maximize the health of populations or improve productivity.
Competition as a Public Health Problem
By Pauline Vaillancourt Rosenau, Ph.D.
“The invisible hand conjures ill health along with wealth” (Burris, 1997, pp 1607-8).
Experts suggest that competition maximizes societal well being by eliminating less competitive players from the field. It is efficient, making the most goods available at the least price (Osborne & Gaebler, 1992; Scherer, 1994). Competition is assumed to yield the best, meanest, leanest systems of production with the least waste, whether it is among individuals, groups, organizations, corporations, or nations (FitzRoy, Acs, & Gerlowski, 1998; Van Hooff, 1991). It is praised for increasing productivity, rewarding innovation, encouraging each individual to perform to his or her utmost, wringing out excess market capacity, lowering costs, increasing organizational efficiency, raising standards, distributing what a society produces more adequately, protecting the public from government bureaucracy, promoting learning, and stimulating advancement in science and education (Bengtsson, 1998; Cronbach, 1963; Horowitz, 1968; Rich & De Vitis, 1992). It is thought to bring about needed change and to end bureaucratic rigidity (Osborne & Gaebler, 1992). Competition is even said to build character and improve interpersonal relations (Shaw, 1958). Experts agree that competition works its magic without reference to ethics or philosophy.
But even if this view is true, none of it is without costs including public health consequences. This is especially the case if public health is defined in broad terms. Public health’s mission as Charles-Edward Winslow put it in 1920 is the “fulfillment of society’s interest in assuring the conditions in which people can be healthy “ (Gostin, 2000, quoted on p.309; Institute of Medicine, 1988). This means everyone has a standard of living appropriate to the maintenance of health and the condition in which every citizen may realize her or his birthright of health and longevity (Hanlon & Pickett, 1984). It brings into public health a population health perspective. It introduces socioeconomic status, inequalities, early childhood development, education, employment conditions, and social support systems into the public health equation (Terris, 1986, see p. 55 for cite).
Certain forms of competition interfere with the achievement of public health goals in several ways. These are examined below, but not all forms of competition are the same in terms of their impact on human health and productivity. Some are benign or even beneficial while others are destructive. Much depends on how competition is employed to allocate society’s resources; how it rewards winners and sanctions losers. Competition was not designed to redistribute society’s wealth. Where that is the public-health-relevant goal other means are better suited to the task.
Sometimes the effect of competition on health is direct. This is the case with regard to stress. But the ways in which destructive competition constitutes a public health problem are often overlooked because the dynamic involved is often indirect and subtle. For example, destructive forms of competition increase social inequality, a concern of population health approaches to public health. Here competition’s influence takes place indirectly, via the social determinants of health.
Winning and losing at each level, be it the individual, the group, the organization, the corporate entity, or the nation, is not random (Gorney, 1972). Under conditions of unrestrained competition, results are predictable. This is because at the outset, competitors seldom starts at a point of equality. Some have more resources, attributes, and wealth than others. Even those attesting to the virtue of the invisible hand in the marketplace agree that “one cannot explain the pattern of output or results in any market system by pointing exclusively to market transactions, for the pattern is always a result of both the transactions and the prior determinations taken together” (Lindblom, 2001, p.171). The rewards of winning are often cumulative (Frank, 1985, p. 4).
Eventually, and in the absence of any outside interventions, competition increases differences and sustains a negative spiral of winning or losing, thus generating even greater levels of inequality. As the process moves along over time, it leads to big winners and continual losers. Competition continues, and too often, the winners, often at the expense of the losers in previous competitive encounters, influence the terms of play. People become discouraged when they repeatedly lose (Campbell, 1982; Drucker, 2001, p.11). The intrinsic motivation to try and put forth one’s best effort is reduced by losing over and over again (Deci & Ryan, 1985). Repeated losers, be they individuals, organizations, or societies, have poorer health (Lynch, Kaplan, & Shema, 1997) and lower productivity. Lower societal productivity is a matter of public health concern when it means that a substantial portion of the population cannot maintain a standard of living sufficient for health and longevity. In the end everyone is worse off, because even when a minority of the population is unable to work to their full capacity, because of psychological or physical health impediments, the quality of life is compromised for all members of society. The same dynamic plays out at the global level where unrestricted competition increases inequality between the developing and the developed countries.
Different Kinds of Competition
Efforts to define competition and to distinguish among its various forms are few. Certain types of competition are more likely to have negative health effects rather than others. Competition can be structured in various ways and each has significant but different consequences. Goal-oriented competition encourages each player, each person, to do their best and to work with others to achieve an objective. An example is how the World Health Organization encourages each country to set time-specific national goals for improving population health and then strive to attain those goals. Each country is competing with itself to reach national health objectives (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1992, 2001). Inter-personal competitiveness is not so benign because it emphasizes doing better than others, winning over others for its own sake (Morey & Gerber, 1995).
Johnson and Johnson suggest that there are important differences as well between zero-sum competition and appropriate competition (Johnson & Johnson, 1989; Johnson & Johnson, 1994; Stanne, Johnson, & Johnson, 1999). Zero-sum competition involves the distribution of rewards on a “winner-take-all” basis. This means that I win, you lose. Appropriate competition seeks to maximize personal well-being, improve overall societal productivity, and advance global community. It is associated with four characteristics. First, winning must not be so important that it generates the extreme anxiety that interferes with performance. Second, all participants in the competition must see themselves as having a reasonable chance to win and thus remain motivated to give it an honest try, their best effort. Third, the rules of the competition need to be clear and fair as to procedures and criteria for winning. Finally, those competing should be able to monitor how they are doing compared to others. This feedback may, in fact, be more important than actually winning (Johnson & Johnson, 1989).
Destructive, excessive, or unfettered competition seems to be associated with serious, negative, though sometimes unintentional, side effects.[1] Examples of destructive competition include cutting costs by polluting the environment, “competing” by reducing worker safety and protection measures, or competing at socially irresponsible, damaging financial speculation. Destructive competition drives out constructive competition. For example, “Firms will not be able to compete at the skillful management of the production process if they are undersold by firms that are competing at evading waste-treatment costs” (Johnson & Johnson, 1989, p32-33). Groups, individuals, and countries practice destructive competition when they win by cheating on the rules—or when they cheat more than their competitors. In the business world--many aspects of public health are conducted as a business in United States today--destructive competition is about price wars that benefit those who have the resources to outlast others, some of whom may be more efficient than the survivors (Swisher, 2000). Destructive competition involves undercutting standards, and manipulating or exploiting others. Examples include stock market manipulation, tricky accounting mechanisms, confusing fares and fee schedules, deceptive advertising, marketing ploys, and less than truthful sales promotions. It lends to the exploitation of vulnerable populations who may be too trusting or who simply lack alternatives (Culbertson, 1985, pp. 27-28).
Stress, The Individual and Health Status
Accumulating evidence links destructive competition to stress and stress, in turn, to ill health. Many forms of stress appear to increase the risk for disease and death. At the molecular level stress effects have been closely studied in the last 50 years. These can be devastating. The link between competition and stress is of more recent interest(Rosenau, 2003).
At the biological level, competition-generated anxiety and stress reactions disturb normal hormonal processes especially as regards those who lose. If pushed to the extreme limits, biological self-correction mechanisms are overridden. Hormonal imbalances persist on an almost permanent basis. This reduces the ability to do well in future competitive situations (Campbell & Furrer, 1995). Stress, high anxiety, distraction, and low concentration all diminish the probability of winning even more. At the same time, winning increases the desire to compete again. All these processes contribute to the self-reinforcing spiral of destructive competition at the biological level.
Competition Increases Stress
Exactly how stressful social processes like competition affect human health at the biological, molecular level is not fully understood though promising hypotheses abound (Wilkinson, 2001). Learning more about the precise chemistry of the wear and tear on the body’s cells and the acceleration of the aging process are central to this research topic. Social stress is thought to upset the equilibrium of the neurological, endocrine, and immune systems (Brunner & Marmot, 1999; Everson, Kaplan, Goldberg, Salonen, & Salonen, 1997; Marshall et al., 1998; Sapolsky, 1996). The independent regulation of these systems and their joint interaction are disturbed by too much stress. Stress interferes with the autonomic nervous system and its huge network of intricate activities, including heart rate and breathing that are all so carefully coordinated in normal circumstances. The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis of the endocrine system is similarly affected. In short, stress plays havoc with our hormones.
Competition-related stress-effects in humans have been studied in different contexts. The effects of stress are greater when the competitive pressure is increased, and are higher in actual competitive conditions than in sports training sessions. Intense competition leads to acute abnormal elevation of heart rate and blood pressure (Fenici, Ruggieri, Brisinda, & Fenici, 1999; Kerr & Pos, 1994)[2]. Highly competitive educational situations generate stress effects on individuals. Twelve percent of medical students experience stress, attributable in good part to competition, to the point of psychiatric disorder (Liu, Oda, Peng, & Asai, 1997). For many individuals, stress increases with a variety of other competitive educational experiences, including classroom presentations followed by formal evaluation (Bristow, Hucklebridge, Clow, & Evans, 1997).
Stress Has Consequences for Health Status: At The Biological Level
Almost all antecedents of stress that affect health outcomes do so in a complex fashion (Staw, 1984) and competition is no exception. Biological research indicates that when destructive competition increases stress, it leads to hormonal changes that effect metabolic and physiological processes that in turn influence health. Stress can protect and restore the body, but it can also damage it, with severe consequences in certain cases (McEwen, 1998; McEwen & Stellar, 1993). Some individuals are more susceptible to negative stress effects than others.[3] However, at higher levels of stress, such as those associated with destructive competition, almost everyone suffers some harm. Mild levels of stress may improve performance, encourage creativity, and promote innovation. But prolonged, unremitting stress is likely to be dysfunctional (Anonymous, 1997, p. 396; Gordon, 1991; Herbert & Cohen, 1993; Welford, 1965).
Biological, physical reactions to stress are normal and healthy. But rapid return to base line is essential if disease is to be avoided (Brunner & Marmot, 1999). Stress, if it is positive, increases cardiovascular and catecholamine hormone responses but it only temporarily raises cortisol levels. Stress is negative if it is due to intense fear and distress, or if it persists over a prolonged period of time and becomes chronic. (Lovallo, 1997, p. 73). For some individuals, certainly a minority through repeated, over-stimulation the inactivation mechanisms become inefficient. This has serious health consequences (Bremner et al., 1997; McEwen, 1998; Syvalahti, 1987).
The most destructive forms of competition may cause the sympatho-adrenal pathway or the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) to overreact (Brunner & Marmot, 1999).
In the extreme, the health effects of very high levels of stress may include muscle wastage, hypertension, impaired immunity (Marshall et al., 1998) and even infertility (Lacour & Consoli, 1993; Sapolsky, 1990, p. 120). Lower stress levels have fewer negative health effects on the immune system and endocrine system, but people vary a great deal in terms of their reactions (Wilkinson, 1996).
Stress raises cortisol levels, which may damage the hippocampus. Stress-related increases in cortisol and beta-endorphins are probably associated with poor self-esteem and affective instability (Zorilla, DeRubeis, & Redei, 1995).
In some humans, the stress that causes psychological problems is directly linked to competition (Short, 1997). This suggests “individual differences in basal HPA-function are associated with individual differences in psychological functioning following stress” (File, 1996; Zorilla et al., 1995, p 591). Stress-generated serotonin deficiencies appear to be correlated with increased irritability, insomnia, and depression (Coppen, 1973). Stress-generated endocrinological changes can increase or decrease the tendency to be impulsive, aggressive, or even violent (Megargee, 1993). Increased cortisol is associated with nervousness (Booth, Shelley, Mazur, Tharp, & Kittok, 1989; Mazur, 1994), depression (Chodzko-Zajko & O'Connor, 1986; Loosen, 1976; Peeters & Broekkamp, 1994), and impaired memory function (de Quervain, Roozendaal, Nitsch, McGaugh, & Hock, 2000). Disruptions of hypothalamic regulatory function increase with elevated blood pressure for older patients (Gotthardt et al., 1995).
The role of stress in heart disease appears to be as great as that of hypertension and high cholesterol (Langer, Criqui, Feigelson, McCann, & Hamburger, 1996; Rozanski, Blumenthal, & Kaplan, 1999). Observations of the same individuals over several years, across many points in time, indicate that stress leads to an increased probability of hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes (Raikkonen, Keltikangas-Jarvinen, Adlercreutz, & Hautenen, 1996), heart disease (Moyer et al., 1994), depression (Vanpraag, 1996), and mortality (Phillips et al., 2001). Laboratory experiments involving closely controlled temporal relations have established a causal link between stress and reduced immunity [Bristow, 1997 #402; Glaser, 2000 #3088;(Kiecolt-Glaser & Glaser, 2001); Kennedy, 1988 #3089]; stress makes individuals more susceptible to colds (Cohen, Doyle, Skoner, Rabin, & Gwaltney, 1997; Cohen et al., 1998; Cohen, Tyrrell, & Smith, 1991; Herbert & Cohen, 1993) and herpes (Glaser et al., 1999). The same type of time-limited data shows that stressed subjects exhibit higher levels of cortisol. Increases in cortisol over a 2 or 3 year period were correlated with declines in cognitive functioning for women but not men (Seeman, McEwen, Singer, Albert, & Rowe, 1997).
Stress Related Competition in the Workplace: from the Biological to the Social
Losing in a competitive situation has documented consequences for health and future performance and stress plays a role. Losing produces a negative self-evaluation (Meeker, 1990). This also lowers immune responses (Strauman, Lemieux, & Coe, 1993). Losing may even lead to social isolation, and this in turn is associated with negative health effects (Coplan, Pine, Papp, & Gorman, 1997). Social isolation has been linked to increased cortisol levels in animal studies (Levine, Lyons, & Schatzberg, 1997). In humans, it reduces longevity, slows recovery from illness and injury, and is correlated with increased severity of illness (Johnson & Johnson, 1989, p. 130). Much the same is true of the hostility, cynicism, mistrust, and anger that result from competition-generated psychological stress (Barefoot, Dahlstrom, & Williams, 1983; Barefoot et al., 1987; Lovallo, 1997).
In addition, individual hormonal reactions to competition and stress in the workplace vary across the population, with some people being highly susceptible and others not, for a variety of reasons (Frost et al., 1986; Lovallo, 1997; Turner et al., 1995). In humans, known characteristics are associated with stress sensitivity. These factors include early life experiences, personality, gender, marital status, age, occupation, and work environment (Rosenau, 2003).
The most competitive work environments have the greatest biological effects resulting in serious public health consequences. The precise aspects of the competitive workplace that contribute to the stress, that in turn result in negative health effects, are just beginning to be understood (Hinton & Burton, 1997). It appears that workplace conditions are directly or indirectly associated with higher levels of heart disease and other cardiovascular risks, especially for workers of a lower social class background (Marmot & Theorell, 1988, pp. 672-3). Biological and social effects are intertwined. Work related stress, including psychosocial stress, correlates with a whole host of negative biological processes, including “hyperinsulinemia, hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia, hypertension, increased abdominal obesity, and plasminogen activation inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) antigen comprising the IRS (insulin resistance syndrome)” (Raikkonen et al., 1996, p. 1533; Schnall, Schwartz, Landsbergis, Warren, & Pickering, 1998, p. 697).
A competitive and stressful work environment has indirect health consequences that are sometimes counterintuitive. While it might seem logical that the most successful people would be the most competitive and the most stressed at work because they have the most demanding careers (high levels of responsibility and long hours) this isn’t always so (Cavanaugh, Boswell, Roehling, & Boudreau, 2000). These powerful, high status individuals have the ability to personally control the stress they encounter in life. The opposite is true for those who hold lower level jobs. Here the individual has little autonomy and must live with a high level of stressful uncertainty and competition (Karasek, 1979). Absence of job decision latitude, characteristic of low-paid positions, is similarly correlated with higher health risks (Karasek et al., 1988).
At least two different scenarios offer possible explanations for this unexpected result. Both involve the biology of stress. Both are intertwined with competition for monetary reward or personal recognition though competition is unlikely to be the only cause of this stress. First, individuals in the lower ranks may work very hard and yet receive few rewards for their efforts. There is an absence of appropriate reward-for-effort. Second, they may have little control over the work they do, how it is planned, and how it is carried out. In both instances stress increases and health consequences follow (Frankenhaeuser & Gardell, 1976; Marmot, Siegrist, Theorell, & Feeney, 1999). In fact, “subjects experiencing high effort and low reward conditions and subjects with low job control had higher risks of new coronary heart disease than their counterparts in less adverse psycho-social work environments” (Bosma, Peter, Siegrist, & Marmot, 1998, p.71). Over the course of a lifetime, mortality is 43% higher for those working in low-control jobs (Amick et al., 2002). Research suggests that higher socioeconomic status makes for greater life control, lower stress, and lower mortality (Karasek & Theorell, 1990; Pollard, Ungpakorn, Harrison, & Parkes, 1996). High job demands and high competition for status are less likely to be associated with negative stress effects, however, if the individual has control of the work situation (Brunner, 1996; McEwen, 1998; Short, 1997; Stokols, Pelletier, & Fielding, 1995).
Highly competitive markets lead to job loss that has biological effects resulting in ill health. During times of economic boom, stress and health effects are lower than during economic slowdowns because layoffs are far more common during periods of economic contraction (Hymowitz, 2001). Close to 50 studies completed in the 1980s and 1990s confirm a strong association between unemployment and increased risk of morbidity (physical and mental illness) and mortality (Brenner, 1995). The direction of causation has been studied; it is more likely that job loss causes ill health and mortality than the opposite (Jin, Chandrakant, & Svoboda, 1995). Even merely anticipating job loss has been found to have negative consequences for health (Hurrell, 1998; Marmot et al., 1999). Competition-generated unemployment, as with unemployment in general, is often involuntary. It is related to increased stress levels, loss of confidence, reduced self-esteem and increases in mental health problems, anxiety, and depression (Klunk, 1997; MacFadyen, MacFadyen, & Prince, 1996; Theodossiou, 1998). The feeling of hopelessness that accompanies unemployment may in turn also lead to serious negative health effects such as arteriosclerosis (Everson et al., 1997). It results in higher suicide rates (Oswald, 1997).
While individual studies may be disputed, overall trends are clear. A spiral of competition and the resulting negative biological health effects, often due to increased stress, have significant consequences. At the biological level, the immediate costs of stress and ill health resulting from competition may appear to be borne primarily by the individual rather than the organization or society. For example, an individual may become unemployed if she or he becomes ill or disabled due to stress or stress-related disease. The costs of this negative spiral of competition are not always evident on the corporate accounting sheet. But, when workplace competition generates stress, the consequential health-related illness leads to absenteeism and higher job turnover. It increases the cost of health services to the individual and to the employer who sponsors health insurance. A large majority of doctor visits are thought to be stress-related, according to the Center for Corporate Health at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Employees who report greater on-the-job stress have health expenditures that are 46% higher than those of other workers. This was much more than the increased health expenditures attributable to tobacco use (14%) and high blood pressure (12%) (Goetzel et al., 1998). Based on estimates from the 1980s, job stress costs $2,770 per employee per year (Matteson & Ivancevich, 1987).
The Public Health Relevance of Competition among Groups and Organizations
If public health involves assuring that all individuals be provided with the opportunity to lead healthy and productive lives as Winslow’s definition above suggests, then the competitive dimension of common educational practices and workplace organizations structures needs to be reassessed. Research suggests that not all forms of competition improve productivity in every circumstance (Anderson & Morrow, 1995; Johnson & Ahlgren, 1976; Johnson, Johnson, & Anderson, 1978; Rosenau, 2003; Zwanziger & Melnick, 1996). Therefore it does not necessarily contribute to attaining an adequate standard of living for all.
Johnson and Johnson examined 521 studies of competition completed between 1899 and 1989. They concluded that, overall, cooperation produces higher productivity and achievement than competitive or individualistic efforts (Johnson & Johnson, 1989, pp. 19, 41). Only about ten percent of the studies assessed showed the opposite in this ninety-year period. Another review article summarized research carried out between 1939 and 1993. It suggested that interpersonal competition is less effective than cooperation for all subject areas and age groups, over a wide variety of tasks, including those involving motor skills, decoding, recall of factual information, and problem-solving categories that require a variety of different cognitive processes (Qin, Johnson, & Johnson, 1995). Cooperation within groups, combined with competition between these groups, works better than competition alone. Research supports the finding that in situations where groups compete with each other, achievement and productivity is greater for those groups that practice internal cooperation (Johnson, Maruyama, Johnson, Nelson, & Skon, 1981, p.57).
Where competition does increase productivity, it often diminishes quality (Deutsch, 1949; Johnson, Johnson, & Stanne, 1985; Rosenau, 2003) and this too may jeopardize a society’s standard of living and has public health consequence. Patient mortality rates at hospitals in highly competitive markets are greater than in less competitive markets (Shortell & Hughes, 1988). This indicates lower quality. In the highly competitive health sector of the 1990s, about 28% of employers and over 60% of physician group representatives say that “cost pressures are hurting quality” (Angell & Kassirer, 1996; Watson Wyatt Worldwide, 1998, p.2). Quality may be hard to maintain because in such highly competitive health care provider markets, price and market share have been the most important consideration.
Some of the public health consequences of unremitting competition undermine health system performance. Sixteen percent of workers report that they are pressured to cut corners and reduce quality control (American Society of Chartered Life Underwriters and Chartered Financial Consultants & Ethics Officer Association, 1997, p. 7). Twenty-four percent of primary care physicians indicate that the scope of care they are expected to provide, now that the health system has become highly competitive, is greater than it should be (St. Peter, Reed, Kemper, & Blumenthal, 1999, p. 1980). Intense market competition means doctors are being asked to perform in medical specialties different from those in which they were trained (Grumbach, 1999). Patients do not receive optimal health care, and rehabilitation therapy may be denied them to save money because competition is so great (Retchin, Brown, Yeh, Chu, & Moreno, 1997). A comparison of Arizona’s Medicaid managed-care program (organized around highly competitive bidding) with New Mexico’s much less competitive, more traditional Medicaid program reveals substantially lower quality in the Arizona program (McCall, 1997). The practice of “de-skilling” in the hospital industry is adopted by many organizations in an effort to survive in the competitive marketplace. But it reduces the quality of care and hospital worker safety (Pindus & Greiner, 1997). De-skilling means downgrading the responsibilities of a job or position. It also takes the form of hiring the employee with the lowest level of education and training possible to do a job. This is worrisome when patient lives depend on a narrow margin of error and good judgment is essential.
Few studies exist that discuss population distribution of individual ability to perform under competitive conditions. But it appears that substantial proportion of the workforce is more likely to function to full capacity only where the level of competition is moderated. In short, some individuals, probably a minority, may actually thrive on competition despite, for example, its potential long-term negative health effects (Richerson, Boyd, & Paciotti, 2002). There are very few studies of addiction to competition. In the context of the competition paradigm, such an addiction may even be viewed as an asset rather than a liability. But to adopt this uncritical view would be a mistake. When competition is addictive, withdrawal leads to depression, at least if what is known from competitive sports is true of other areas of life (Tarkan, 2000).
If all members of society are to be allowed to work to their greatest potential, to maximize their personal contribution to society, then provision must be made for those who work hard but do not function at their best in competitive circumstances, for those who do better and are more productive in a cooperative incentive setting. Overall, “the larger the proportion of the population able to participate productively…the greater the likelihood of increased economic prosperity” (Keating & Hertzman, 1999, p. 15)
Destructive Market Competition and Organizational Structure and Practice
Common organizational practices have considerable public health consequences. The health effects of competition-related downsizing on those laid off are an example. Downsizing and layoffs make for lower worker morale (American Management Association, 1994; Wyatt Company, 1993; Yankelovich, 1997) (Lester, 1998). Workers who remain are often profoundly distressed, and they experience guilt, anger, anxiety, and denial (Brockner, 1988; Sutton, 1990) (Gordon, 1991; Murray, 2001; Short, 1997). Such corporate restructuring increases depression, despair, and detachment among those who remain [Greenberg, 1995 #1108; (Wilkinson & Marmot, 1998). Unemployment suffered by those fired has known negative health effects.
Employers believe that they will be more competitive if they employ temporary workers. Temporary employees are thought to increase organizational flexibility (Davis-Blake & Uzzi, 1993). They cost less because many do not have employer-provided health insurance and other benefits (Casey, 1989; Christopherson, 1989); this reduces the immediately-evident fixed costs of employment but undermines population health because insurance is closely related to access to health services. Organizations that emphasize temporary employment also have greater salary differentials that translate into higher turnover among their lower-paid employees (Pfeffer & Davis-Blake, 1992). Reduced stability and duration of employment leads to poorer morale among employees (Cappelli, 1995, pp. 585-6)
Mechanisms designed to increase internal competition in the workplace are widespread and of public health consequence because they have an impact on employee mental and physical health. Such devices include performance reviews with ranking, merit pay,“report cards” and competitive zero-sum grading schemes that set worker against worker within an organization (Abelson, 2001) (Coens, Jenkins, & Block, 2000). Enron consciously sought to encourage competition between its employees with its famous “rank and yank” philosophy. John F. Welch Jr., former chairman and CEO of General Electric, put it this way: “A company that bets its future on its people must remove that lower 10 percent, and keep removing it every year – always raising the bar of performance and increasing the quality of its leadership” (Abelson, 2001, p. A1).
Evidence that internal noncompetitive workplace structures and incentives improve performance comes from case studies in a range of different economic sectors, in several different countries, for large and small companies, going back 50 years (Simmons & Mares, 1983; Walton, 1972). Self-management and industrial democracy experiments increased productivity between 10% and 40%. The Gaines Pet Food plant in Kansas implemented such innovations and found, they increased output and reduced accidents. The Volvo plant in Kalmar Sweden carried out numerous workplace experiments that increased internal cooperation and gave workers more freedom and autonomy at the same time. These arrangements increased efficiency and reduced absenteeism dramatically (FitzRoy et al., 1998; Gibson, 1973; Gyllenhammar, 1977a, 1977b; Karasek & Theorell, 1990). Workers organized into autonomous cooperative teams exhibited higher product quality, lower absenteeism, and reduced turnover (Berggren, 1992, pp. viii-x; Management Review, 1972; Thierauf, 1982). In combination, high performance work practices have a multiplier effect (Kruse & Blasi, 2000). Results are the same across many studies in different circumstances (Baker, 1999). Even the most conservative estimates suggest that workplace innovations that increase internal cooperation and that empower employees do not harm employers (Neumark & Cappelli, 1999) (Cappelli & Neumark, Forthcoming). Only in one specific situation, when the task is entirely independent, is competition as efficient in promoting productivity as is cooperation. Because most of what we do in life is interdependent rather than independent, intense competition is more often a minus than a plus for individuals and groups.
Decreased Safety is a Public Health Concern
Destructive competition may make for lower attention to safety considerations in the workplace and this is a substantial public health consideration. This may be due to a decline in regulation or an increased drive for profit. If competition increases individual stress, this would augment organizational accident rates due to inattention, carelessness, and distraction. An organizational culture that “encourages individualism, survival of the fittest, macho heroics, and can-do reactions” may seem desirable because it is more competitive (Kaufman, 1999, p. C8), but it can also lead to disaster. On the other hand workers trained to cooperate have better safety records (Orlady & Foushee, 1987). Cooperation is said to be an essential skill in commercial sectors where dangerous activities are common, such as the airline industry (Weick & Roberts, 1993, p. 378).
Intense competition between rival companies can offer an incentive to actually create safety hazards. This happened in the utility sector in the U.S. In filings with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, several utility companies charged that their rivals suspended routine power deliveries over shared lines. The consequences for the customers of these rival companies were enormous. This happened in the summer of 1998 when the Midwest suffered repeated brownouts due to disruptions in transmission. While the official reason for suspending deliveries was said to be a risk of an overload on the lines, others interpreted it as an explicit attempt to damage the competitors. In either case, the indirect result of this intense competition was harm to the competitor’s customers (Kranhold & Emshwiller, 1998).
Experts worry about whether or not the intensely competitive market might have contributed to some recent airline plane crashes (Nance, 1986, Ch. 5). Such speculation has become common, supported by data from Federal Aviation Administration audits of major airlines (Wald, 2002). In the case of the 1998 Swissair tragedy, journalists pointed out that an American Airlines executive had taken over Swissair’s daily operations with an eye to bringing experience from the U.S. competitive market to make Swissair more competitive. “Like other European carriers, Swissair has faced an increasingly competitive business environment as governments increasingly allow deregulation and airlines struggle for passengers….” (Cushman, 1998, p. B6). A US Air accident on July 2, 1994, was attributed to poor pilot-safety and training programs and trying to save money by neglecting required repairs to aircraft (Frantz & Blumenthal, 1994). Deaths were reported to have been higher because US Air “resisted retrofitting cabins” with new flame-retardant material because it cost too much (Frantz & Blumenthal, 1994, p. A19).
ValuJet was under severe competitive pressure just prior to the tragic May 11, 1996, Florida crash (Brannigan & Abramson, 1996). To save money it skimped on personnel training with regard to carrying hazardous materials. Poor maintenance-record keeping probably jeopardizes safety as well (Wald, 1996). Schwartz points out that ValuJet “offered very low fares yet had the highest profit margin in the airline industry” (Schwartz, 1996, p. 45). The hearings held later concerning the crash of ValuJet flight 592 revealed that maintenance workers had been rushing and functioned under intense pressure to meet deadlines and impress potential customers (Davis, 1996). A court case found the company guilty and levied large fines, but the employees involved were not found guilty. Following the January 31, 2000 crash of an Alaska Air plane off the coast of California, mechanics at the Seattle maintenance facility said they had been “pressured, threatened and intimidated” to cut corners (Verhovek, 2000, p. A25).
Loss of Trust and Lower Morale in the Workplace
A trusting environment is essential for human well-being and public health. Trust is, however, a fragile commodity (Bok, 1999; Levi & Stoker, 2000). Many structural and functional changes that accompany high levels of competition undermine employee trust and morale (Uchitelle, 2001). These, in turn, translate into lower productivity and profits (Pink, 2001). (American Society of Chartered Life Underwriters and Chartered Financial Consultants & Ethics Officer Association, 1997). Distrust arises, as well, from the surveillance procedures common in the highly competitive industrial workplace today (Cialdini, 1996; Kruglanski, 1970; Strickland, 1958). “Because of psychological reactance, even honest employees may try to cheat or sabotage monitoring systems” (Kramer, 1999, p. 591; Prusak & Cohen, 2001).
Where employers make a commitment to employees in terms of a long-term relationship, employees perform better and are happier (Cascio, Young, & Morris, 1997; Drucker, 2002; Hurrell, 1998). They respond favorably to this type of employer allegiance and are more productive (Tsui, Pearce, Porter, & Tripoli, 1997). Uncertainties about future employment status and job loss are related to poor physical and psychological health of employees (Ferrie, Shipley, Marmot, Stansfeld, & Smith, 1995, 1998). Surveys in Britain and the U.S. indicated that unemployment takes a toll on an individual’s feelings of well-being and happiness (Argyle, 2001; Blanchflower & Oswald, 2001). Even the fear of unemployment has such effects (Di Tella, MacCulloch, & Oswald, 2001). This in turn influences workplace morale.
Competition’s Worst Externalities: Psycho-Pathologies and Fraud Are a Public Health Problem
Studies also warn of largely unexpected public health relevant externalities of competition. Controlling the worst side of human nature, the urge to destroy and injure others is a public health problem. Psychopathologies, such as interpersonal hostility, aggression, generalized violence, deception, cheating, and fraud, are all associated in certain circumstances with too much destructive competition. The famous Robbers’ Cave experiments of Sherif and Sherif found that aggression, hostility, and collective fighting increased after 12-year-old boys were encouraged to play competitive games at summer camp (Sherif, Harvey, White, Hood, & Sherif, 1961). In-group solidarity translated, in the presence of competition, into out-group discrimination, hostility, and aggression (Sherif & Sherif, 1953). One experimenter reported, “Sometimes intergroup antagonism grew so intense that the experiments had to be discontinued” (Blake & Mouton, 1986, p.72; Sherif & Sherif, 1953). The impact of competition-generated hostility and aggression was found to be long lasting and difficult to reverse (Sherif & Sherif, 1970). Only imposed super ordinate goals that required groups to work together toward a common objective improved the relationship between the groups (Goldstein, 1994, p.100; Sherif et al., 1961).
Destructive competition can push organizations to resort to fraud and corruption that are also directly and indirectly a public health problem (Labaton, 2001). Between 1992 and 1999 prosecutions against health care providers increased from 83 to 506 (Steinhauer, 2001). Fraud and the act of covering it up are illegal. Columbia HCA’s paid kickbacks, falsified Medicare claims, upcoding the severity of patient illness when requesting government reimbursement, and other criminal activities coincided with the full development of market competition in the health sector (Eichenwald, 1997a, 1997b; Gottlieb & Eichenwald, 1997; Lagnado, 2000; Rodriguez & Lagnado, 1997). Columbia HCA ended up paying more than $800 million in settlement payments (Eichenwald, 2000; Lagnado, 2001). Vencor, a corporate nursing-home-care provider, was also caught – in this case for illegally discharging patients who ran out of money and had to move to Medicaid coverage (Adams & Moss, 1998). Medicaid did not pay as much as private insurance and therefore Medicaid patients were avoided. Tenet (when it was called National Medical Enterprises) held patients “hostage” at its inpatient psychiatric hospitals, drugging them and restraining them against their will, until the patients’ health insurance benefits had been exhausted. The goal was to maximize revenue to the hospital even if this amounted to what courts called kidnapping (Sharp, 2000).
Does intense competition lead to more mistakes, fraud and greater effort at cover-ups? Most of the evidence is anecdotal, but it does suggest that this is the case (Vaughan, 1999). High pressure to produce may make for impossible goals resulting from stiff competition. Medical care, again, is a good example. Hospitals that are not doing well from a financial point of view have higher rates of adverse patient outcomes, patient injuries that result from mistakes in medical management. During periods of intense financial competition, such hospitals may not be able to spend enough on patient care to avoid negligence (Burstin, Lipsitz, Udvarhelyi, & Brennan, 1993). Errors are found to increase when nurse caseloads are unusually high. Stress and fatigue, high workloads, and time pressures contribute to increased mistakes and higher error rates (Leape, 1994). Intense competition exacerbates these conditions. Under intense competition, many teaching hospitals affiliated with medical schools violate legal limitations on the number of hours a resident can work. Tired residents make more mistakes (McKee & Black, 1992; Pear, 2000). Lower profits for pharmacies in a managed-care environment, together with longer shifts, fewer breaks, and more pressure on pharmacists, are hypothesized to increase errors in filling prescriptions (Sowers, 1996). There is another incentive to overlook medical errors, according to Lucian Leape. Errors “generate revenues in a fee-for-service system” (Leape, 1996, p. 3). But the cost of errors to hospitals can also be high (Bates et al., 1997; Classen, Pestotnik, Evans, Lloyd, & Burke, 1997). Although the causes of mistakes and errors in medicine have been known for years, little has changed and cover-ups continue (Kilborn, 1999; Pear, 1999).
Mistakes and marginally unfair business practices can sometimes be profitable to a corporation in a competitive environment, and when this is the case they may become routine practice (Landau & Chisholm, 1995; Singer, 1978). For example, some managed-care companies have routine policies of “deny, delay and down-code” regarding approval of physician requests for patient procedures and reimbursement (Jackson, 2000). They reimburse doctors later rather than promptly, upon receipt of a bill, deriving a fiscal advantage over competitors. A study of hospital billing revealed that 99% of bills contained errors, and most of these favored the hospital (Kerr, 1992; Rosenthal, 1993; U.S. General Accounting Office, 1993). Mistakes increase where staff cutbacks result in inadequate supervision of residents (McKee & Black, 1992). Pressure to meet deadlines and increase productivity, higher under conditions of excess competition, result in more mistakes (Riemer, 1976).
Global Competition and Public Health
The dynamics of the spiral of competition at the national and international levels are, again, known and the public health consequences are apparent. A variety of complicated mechanisms and self-reinforcing social processes appear to be at work. The competitive process reduces the probability of financial investment in the poorest nations, especially if uncertainty and future political unrest threaten. Less investment in poor countries increases the likelihood of greater social and political uncertainty over time. Inequality between the rich and the poor countries increases and it negatively affects population health (Stewart & Berry, 1999) within many countries. At the same time unrestrained competition increases the difference between the rich and the poor.
Competition Related Inequality As a Public Health Problem: Global and Societal Population health Consequences
The last half of the 1990s was a period of high economic growth, low inflation, and low employment in the U.S. Yet, the gap between the rich and the poor failed to diminish, in all but 5 states, even in this period of extraordinary prosperity (Bernstein, McNichol, Mishel, & Zahradnik, 2000; Johnston, 2002; Schlesinger, Mabry, & Lueck, 1999). This constitutes a marked change from the increasing equalization of income in the U.S., for example, that began in the 1930s (Morris & Western, 1999). The fact that the industrialized countries, assumed to be immune to rising inequality, are also experiencing this trend is a surprise.
What is true at the individual level holds for the national level as well (Bergesen & Bata, 2002). Convergence theories that posited that the productivity differences between the rich and poor countries would diminish have not proven true in the 1990s (Baumol, Nelson, & Wolff, 1994). Income inequality among countries is on the increase worldwide (Faux & Mishel, 2001; International Monetary Fund Expenditure Policy Division, 1998; Park, 1997; Sachs, 1999; United Nations Development Programme, 1997). Poor countries are losing ground relative to richer countries. While World Bank analysts argue that growth means everyone benefits from “seeing their incomes rise simultaneously at about the same rate” (Economist, 2000a, p. 82), and, indeed, while the poor countries are doing better than ever before, the disparity between the developed and the third-world countries continues to rise. It was about 7 or 8 to 1 in 1977. Today some sources say it is close to 30 to 1 while others suggest it is 37 times higher (Mueller, 1999, p. 73; Seib, 2002).
The exact cause of the epidemic of increasing inequality observed within modern industrialized nations and between rich and poor countries is not known. But destructive forms of national and international competition may account for it, at least in part (Levinson, 1996). Richard Freeman, professor of economics at Harvard, was quoted in The New York Times, as suggesting “there is little doubt that market forces have spoken in favor of more inequality” (Stille, 2001, p. A17).
The purpose here is not to argue that destructive competition is the sole cause of increasing inequality in the developing countries. Scholars have suggested many reasons for increased wealth or income inequality both within countries and between nations though few of these explanations are independent of competition.
Destructive Competition Has Global and Societal Population Health Consequences
This appears to be a trade-off between equality and national competitiveness ratings. This means that as countries strive for and achieve higher competitiveness ratings (World Economic Forum, 2001) they pay the price of increased inequality. Increasing national competitiveness appears to be associated with rising inequality even in many of the highly industrialized OECD countries (Rosenau, 2003).
If increases in national competitiveness during periods of intense global competition are related to higher inequality, then distinct population health costs result (Daniels, Kennedy, & Kawachi, 2000). This is because increases in inequality are bad for one’s health, not just at the individual level as observed in preceding chapters, (Okun, 1975) but at the societal level as well (Coburn, 2000). These negative health effects are cumulative over time. The “health effects of sustained economic hardship …have potentially important implications for public health, health care, and economic policy” (Lynch et al., 1997, p. 1894). The effects are increased societal health care cost and lower societal productivity (Poland, Coburn, Robertson, & Eakin, 1998, p. 789).
Inequality is linked to increased morbidity and mortality at the individual level (Evans & Stoddart, 1990; Wilkinson, 1996). People with inequality-generated disadvantage, real or perceived, are more likely to have poorer physical well-being, reduced psychological health, and problems with cognitive function. However, they are less likely to receive needed health care (Lynch et al., 1997, p. 1894). A number of studies suggest that the rich have better health outcomes than the poor across a range of morbidity measures, including coronary artery disease (Williams et al., 1992), infant mortality (Hales, Howden-Chapman, Salmond, Woodward, & Mackenbach, 1999), and exposure to environmental hazards (Blane, Bartley, & Smith, 1997). The relationship between health and inequality holds for the young and for adults (Dahl & Birkelund, 1997; Lundberg, 1997; West, 1997). In addition, inequality itself is correlated with higher mortality, even after controlling for other factors (Kaplan, Pamuk, Lynch, Cohen, & Balfour, 1996; Williams, 1998).
These same negative effects of inequality on health are apparent at the global level. The very poorest countries have the highest infant mortality rates while the wealthiest countries have the lowest (Young, 1998). Though the exact mechanisms underlying these relationships are not known, the findings have held up across countries and over time (Acheson, 1998; Chiang, 1999; Doorslaer et al., 1997; Fox, 1989; Kunst, 1997; Mackenbach & Kunst, 1997; Wilkinson, 1996). Studies suggest that the health status of the population (as measured by life expectancy) predicts subsequent national economic growth (Bloom & Canning, 2000). At the same time rapid economic growth is no guarantee of improved population health. It may even increase disparities between the rich and poor as regards health (Hsiao & Liu, 1996). While of greatest relevance for the developing countries, even with the wealthiest of countries, such as the U.S., the effect of wealth or health is apparent for different geographical areas (Kaplan et al., 1996).
While the poor suffer the effects of inequality most, in the end the health consequences of inequality influence everyone in a society. Countries that pursue policies to reduce inequality appear to improve population health and lower mortality rates, not just for the poor but for the wealthiest as well (Hales et al., 1999; Vagero & Lundberg, 1989, pp. 35-36; Wilkinson, 1997). In short, all benefit if inequality is reduced.
The purpose is not to argue that competition is the only cause of differences in health status, via inequality. In fact, a range of factors are probably involved (Kunst, 1997; Tarlov, 2000). But to overlook the possibility that destructive forms of competition play a role is to minimize the public health cost of the competition paradigm to society.
Competition, Inequality, and the Negative Social Environment
Destructive competition is a public health problem for society as a whole because of the hostile social environments associated with it. Such environments include social breakdown in the form of regional economic impoverishment, community decline, weakened family life, societal malaise, and increased crime (Luttwak, 1999). There is evidence however, that only extreme forms of competition lead to desperation, hostility, and aggression (Gordon, Welch, Offringa, & Katz, 2000). Though, of course such problems do not develop only because of competition.
George Soros says that sometimes these negative consequences of destructive competition are indirect and mediated through inequality (Bank, 2002). “Too much competition and too little cooperation can cause intolerable inequities and instability” (Soros, 1997, pp. 47-48). This linkage has been traced to the level of human psychology. Inequality is related to higher hostility scores on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Hostility is in turn associated with poorer health and with higher death rates (Wilkinson, 1999a, p. 62; Williams, Feagares, & Barefoot, 1995). It is also linked to high coronary-artery problems, even in young adults (Iribarren et al., 2000). The links between inequality and negative life circumstances such as chronic unemployment or increased rates of imprisonment or doing without health insurance, have also been studied (Kaplan et al., 1996).
Equality is central to the development and maintenance of civic community and the public sphere. Certain patterns of inequality are associated with a poor quality of social life, with political and social violence, and with rebellion (Midlarsky, 1999; Putnam, 1993, p. 105). These include violent demonstrations, assassinations, coups d’etat, and civil outbreaks (Alesina, Ozler, Roubini, & Swagel, 1996; Hibbs, 1973; Venieris & Gupta, 1983, 1986). Edward Muller of the University of Arizona says that “High levels of income inequality are likely to produce either high levels of rebellious political conflict…or else the perception among elites of a threat of rebellious political conflict and lower-class revolution” (Muller & Seligson, 1994, p. 647).
At the societal level inequality increases poverty. Poverty, in turn, is associated with violence and crime (Curry & Spergel, 1988; Frank, 1999, pp. 299, 313; Taylor & Covington, 1988; Wilkinson, 1999a), at least for a minority of those who experience markedly diminished opportunities and increased frustration (Sachs, 1999; Todaro, 1997). Increased income inequality is correlated with high arrest rates (Midlarsky, 1999). The level of homicide is related to income inequality around the world (Wilkinson, 1999a). A meta-analysis of 34 data-based studies confirms the link between income inequality and crime especially as regards homicide and assault (Hsieh & Pugh, 1993). Without intervention and over time, the worry is that a permanently deprived and under-productive group of nations, societies, or regions could develop and divisions increase (United Nations Secretariat, 2001).
Ironically, in the long run the negative social environment that results from destructive competition may reduce a country’s productivity. “To the extent that people are busy either committing crimes or trying to avoid being victims of them, they are diverted from producing legitimate goods and services” (Frank, 1999, p. 24). High levels of violence and crime compromise the business environment (Barrionuevo & Herrick, 2002). In addition, societal resources must be spent on increased security staff, on home and business monitoring systems, and on the incarceration of 1.7 million Americans. “The lower the level of trust and co-operation, the more expensive it gets” (Wilkinson, 1996, p. 229). Economists estimate that spending on anti-terrorist security in the U.S. constitutes a measurable and continuing drag on the economy (OECD, 2002; Rhoads, 2002). Anthropologists have observed that nonviolent cultures place less emphasis on destructive competition (Bonta, 1997). A study of 58 societies indicated that societal competitiveness is directly related to psychological distress and aggression (Gorney & Long, 1980).
Where there are few limits to competition, people may feel they have no choice but to pursue self-interest without regard to the consequences, especially if survival is at stake. In these cases, the weak often pay the cost. For example, an increase in destructive forms of market competition in Eastern Europe and Russia had an especially negative impact on women and children (Economist, 2000b). Women experienced increased unemployment, less economic independence, lower wages, poorer health outcomes, and fewer social services. They suffered higher levels of rape, prostitution, and domestic violence, concurrent with the rise of destructive forms of competition. Women and children lost many of their equity-based gains (UNICEF, 1999).
Intense Competition Jeopardizes Social Trust and Social Capital in the Community and Society
Social capital and trust are societal assets, essential to the maintenance of community life and individual well-being – both public health concerns. To the extent that destructive competition directly and indirectly threatens social capital it may reduce economic growth and, ironically in the long run, even national competitiveness (Muntaner & Lynch, 1999; Wilkinson, 1996).
Social capital is a synthesis of theoretical concepts from the fields of sociology and economics. It is basically a synonym for social connections. It “refers to features of social organizations such as networks, norms, and social trust that facilitate coordination and cooperation for mutual benefit” (Putnam, 1995. p. 67; 2000). Reciprocity, trust, and mutual aid are all part of social capital (Kawachi, 1999). It is a basic human resource consisting of “obligations and expectations, information channels, and social norms” (Coleman, 1988, pp. S95-105, S118).
The idea of interpersonal trust is central to social capital (Barber, 1988; Fukuyama, 1995; Kramer & Tyler, 1996; Seligman, 1997). Trust involves two dimensions: “Trusting behavior is the willingness to risk beneficial or harmful consequences by making oneself vulnerable to another person. Trustworthy behavior is the willingness to respond to another person’s risk-taking in a way that ensures that the other person will experience beneficial consequences” (Johnson & Johnson, 1994, p. 54). It “enhances individuals’ willingness to engage in various forms of spontaneous sociability, but in complex and often unexpected ways” (Kramer, 1999, p. 584). It is as important at the national and global levels as it is at the organizational level (Rosenau, 2003).
Living in a trusting community has positive public health consequences. Social capital, interpersonal trust, and social cohesion mediate between inequality and health discussed above (Kawachi, Kennedy, Lochner, & Prothrow-Stith, 1997). They are correlated with lower mortality rates (Kawachi, Kennedy, & Lochner, 1997) and reductions in crime and delinquency (Sampson & Groves, 1989; Sampson, Raudenbush, & Earls, 1997). Social trust within a group or community is essential if that group or community is to be productive and to attain its goals (Coleman, 1994). “Healthy, egalitarian countries have - or had - a sense of social cohesion and public spiritedness. Social rather than market values remained dominant in the public sphere of life” (Wilkinson, 1996).
Social bonds, trust, and social capital are less vulnerable in societies where there is a sharp distinction between what is acceptable competition and what is unacceptable competition. Fair, constructive, and appropriate competition does not result in a decline of social capital and reduced trust, as would intense interpersonal or zero-sum competition (Nye, 1997). Research on individuals indicates that “trust tends to be developed and maintained in cooperative situations and it tends to be absent and destroyed in competitive and individualistic situations” (Johnson & Johnson, 1994, p. 53). Experimental research suggests that a “strategy of mutual problem solving and the tactics of persuasion, openness, and mutual enhancement” associated with a cooperative orientation can create an environment where constructive competition is possible (Deutsch, 1973, p. 365).
The fair exchange of goods does not jeopardize social capital; destructive competition does so. When the business environment becomes so intensely competitive that it requires an emphasis on strategies of power and the tactics of coercion, threat, and deception, there is little place for trust. Studies show that emphasis on “winning and losing and the self interest implied by that orientation” reduce trust (Cappella & Jamieson, 1997, p. 84-85). Social capital suffers. Relationships are more hierarchical and dominance of one over the other is the goal. This jeopardizes rather than reinforces social capital, with its requirements for an environment of reciprocity, social support, mutual sharing, and recognition of the needs of others.
Reductions in social capital and trust may be due, in part, to the exaggerated levels of competitiveness in U.S. society. Social surveys document the increasing social isolation and the reductions in a sense of civic commitment that accompany lower levels of social capital in America today (Yankelovich, 1999). The role played by competitiveness is subtle and indirect in its effects. For example, across the whole society the heightened employment mobility required of workers in a highly competitive economy may lead to weaker community ties. When on-the-job competition makes for less time at home, the social capital accruing from participation in Parent-Teacher Associations, civic organizations, and church-related activities is diminished (Putnam, 1995, 2000).
Naturally occurring experiments at the societal level provide evidence pertinent for studying the relationship between competition, social capital and health. The breakup of the Soviet Union constitutes one example of such an experiment (Bobak & Marmot, 1996). Throughout Eastern Europe destructive forms of competition developed in the 1990s. Social capital was jeopardized as an environment of alienation and powerlessness resulted (Barer, Evans, Hertzman, & Johri, 1998). Civil society was on the verge of collapse as crime increased. The transition from the Soviet-style bureaucratic state (with its low levels of competition) to today’s high levels of market competition has resulted in decreased social capital and increased social pathology, and substantial deterioration of population health. (Notzon, Komarov, CT, JS, & EV, 1998; Tarkowska & Tarkowski, 1991). “After 1989, the twin ideologies of individualism and the free market gave those at the top license to abandon those at the bottom” (Hertzman & Marmot, 1996, p. 214).
A naturally occurring experiment in the opposite direction, historical in nature, is equally informative. Britain during World War II had almost no unemployment, and there was a high sense of social cohesion. Cooperation played more of a role as market competition gave way to rationing, price controls, and subsidies. Much the same situation existed during World War I. During these periods, life expectancy increased twice as fast as during other periods in the 20th Century (Wilkinson, 1996, pp. 113-116). This could be due to many factors but the observed absence of destructive societal competition in these historical situations might well be associated with increased social capital and improved societal health status.
* * * * *
Excessively destructive forms of competition at the global level may translate into less attention to global environmental problems. Such problems, including global warming pay no attention to national boundaries. In addition competition of the wrong sort undermines cooperation between countries to control diseases that result in multinational epidemics. War, for example, is one sort of competition that discourages cross-national attention to global health issues.
Those nations already producing to capacity will find their responsibilities increased and their burdens enlarged until the situation of the lesser-developed countries improves. In the long run, the world is a more dangerous and less healthy place unless steps are taken to achieve these goals. Neither crime nor disease, for example, respects national boundaries (Angier, 2001). The weakest member of the global society of nations establishes, directly or indirectly, the security level with which all must live. Controlling destructive competition may appear to be a form of altruism at first glance, but it is at the same time extraordinarily self-interested (Yach & Bettcher, 1998).
An example illustration case. A package of public health and population-health benefits costing 10 billion dollars a year from the first-world countries would save millions of lives in the third-world countries (Sachs, 2000). If just $34.00 of each first-world nation’s per person health care spending were redistributed to the world’s poorest countries, eight million lives per year would be saved. Productivity of the recipient countries would increase; in some cases benefits would be fivefold the cost (Sachs, 2001). It would be best for all because each and every under-performing nation reduces the quality of our international life. “Hungry, sick homeless, and illiterate people cannot contribute to economic development and technological and industrial modernization” (Silk & Silk, 1996, p. 172).
Conclusion: Policy for Appropriate and Effective Competition
Managing competition may be necessary if all individuals, groups, organizations, or nations are to develop to full capacity in the long term and contribute to a health and productive international environments. This is especially true if the goal is to maximize the health of populations or improve productivity.
Six types of policies that encourage appropriate and constructive competition, public health friendly form of competition, are proposed here as an alternative (Johnson & Johnson, 1974; Johnson & Johnson, 1989). These policies are not entirely new, nor are they necessarily more expensive than are their opposite. Neither are they obviously politically partisan in one direction or the other. All can be employed to structure incentives for better performance without individual failure, whether the “individual” be defined as a person, a corporation, or a country. Constructive competition incorporates incentives that improve individual performance, increase productivity, and enhance efficiency while at the same time avoiding the objectionable aspects of destructive competition.
First, policy that encourages goal-oriented competition rather than interpersonal competition is desirable and constructive. HMOs that offer incentives for reaching specific practitioner goals are an example of such policy. All physicians and physician groups who attain a specific goal as regards quality measures and patient satisfaction are awarded a 10 percent bonus by Blue Cross of California (Gellene, 2001).
Second, policies that encourage zero-sum, winner-take-all results should be avoided. For example, if an incentive pool is set up with a fixed amount of money distributed to employees at the end of the year on the basis of measured individual productivity, then destructive competition is increased. What one employee gains, another loses. If, however, a bonus of a specific amount or percentage of salary is offered to all employees who attain a certain level of productivity, or degree of improvement, then overall performance may increase while destructive competition between employees does not.
Third, policy should discourage forms of competition that provoke levels of anxiety so high that it interferes with performance. A lot is known about the relationship between anxiety and stress levels and what is optimal for individual and society (Boswell, Olson-Buchanan, & LePine, 2000). This was discussed in above. Communicating as much information as possible about the competition-related situation in advance may, in some situations, reduce anxiety for many people. Taking steps to enhance individual control in competitive situations may also reduce anxiety. Permitting participant input and involvement in establishing the context of competition may similarly reduce isolation and anxiety. Private policies along these lines would include “trying forms of worker cooperatives, elected directors, employee share ownership, or almost any other forms of democratic decision-making” (Wilkinson, 1999b, p. 538). As mentioned above, such innovations have been found to increase productivity in many different situations (Baker, 1999).
Fourth, policies to encourage constructive competition need to be structured so that everyone has a fair chance of, if not winning, at least gaining something they value from participating. Examples from the sports-world are discussed below. Such competition is structured to offer an advantage to those who have not won in the recent past in order to keep everyone trying. For example, limiting past winners from being considered for awards for a certain period of time gives others a chance to win.
Fifth, policies for constructive and appropriate competition encourage rules that are agreed upon in advance, that seem fair to all, that indicate appropriate behavior, and that outline unacceptable activity. Gaming the rules as well as explicit cheating may be human nature, but policy needs to discourage them if constructive competition is to be assured.
Sixth, policies are best if they organize the competitive encounter so that individuals, organizations, and nations receive constant feedback and can tell how they are doing, where they can improve, and where they are meeting expectations. Total quality improvement techniques, for example, are based on these principles. In this situation each individual competes with himself or herself, striving to develop new and useful skills, sharpen performance, and boost productivity, all the while enhancing what has already been accomplished.
Making Provision for Public Health Considerations
The purpose of competition is not to be fair in the sense of giving everyone, in all circumstances, an equal chance. Competition works differently, advantaging some, disadvantaging others, depending on the circumstances, the context, and the individual. Some people are simply better at competition than others.
From a public health point of view it is important to construct a win-win workplace and to assure that each individual labors in an optimal environment be that cooperative or competitive. Assuring a cooperative work environment for those who perform best in this situation, is not a recommendation to return to blanket welfare programs or unrealistic unemployment benefits that set up the wrong incentives. It simply means that at least some of those who fail at competing may be more productive in a cooperative work environment. Performing better in a cooperative situation does not mean all cooperatively oriented individuals will fail if they are forced to compete by the context, culture, and incentives available. It simply recognizes that some people just do not do as well and will be less productive in a competitive situation. Public health has yet to give adequate attention to problems related to competition.
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[1] Competition can also be described as either constructive or destructive though such descriptions are not a definition (Culbertson, 1985). To define competition solely in terms of its effects would constitute circular reasoning. The terms destructive and constructive are adjectives not nouns. They are employed here to help distinguish the negative aspects of competition from its positive dimensions, not as mere post-facto labels.
[2] It is the competition aspect of sports that generates stress, not physical exercise itself. In fact, regular non-competitive physical exercise has been found to counteract stress and facilitate positive psychological health (Wankel, 1993). It is recommended for those who want to improve health and have a better overall quality of life. Some believe that exercise actually increases longevity though the evidence for this benefit is far from certain.
[3] In addition, individual hormonal reactions to competition and stress vary across the population, with some people being highly susceptible and others not, for a variety of reasons (Frost, Morgenthau, Riessman, & Whalen, 1986; Lovallo, 1997; Turner, Wheaton, & Lloyd, 1995). In humans, known characteristics are associated with stress sensitivity. These factors include early life experiences, personality, gender, marital status, age, occupation, and work environment(Rosenau, 2003)
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