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Effects of cooperative and competitive incentives on agility, quality, and speed in an experimental setting
Author(s) -
Yauch Charlene A.,
Adkins Kristin
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
human factors and ergonomics in manufacturing and service industries
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.408
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1520-6564
pISSN - 1090-8471
DOI - 10.1002/hfm.20007
Subject(s) - incentive , hum , competition (biology) , agile software development , task (project management) , quality (philosophy) , business , industrial organization , agile manufacturing , process management , marketing , knowledge management , operations management , computer science , engineering , economics , microeconomics , management , art , ecology , philosophy , epistemology , performance art , biology , art history
Inter‐ and intraorganizational cooperation have been identified as essential characteristics of agile manufacturing. For this research, agility was compared using two experimental treatments: cooperative versus competitive. Student teams performed a task and were confronted with random changes to simulate a dynamic environment. Although differences were not statistically significant, the results show that cooperative incentives do not result in greater agility. Speed also decreased with cooperative incentives but quality improved. The experiment provides a preliminary understanding of how competition, cooperation, and agility interrelate and suggest that intra‐organizational cooperation may not be the best means of achieving manufacturing agility. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Hum Factors Man 14: 403–413, 2004.