(Internal) Cooperation trumps Competition in the Modern Day Workplace

Cooperation and competition have frequently been studied together to decide which methodology in the workplace environment is most productive.  Lately, cooperation has loosely been defined as collaboration with the manifestation of our Web 2.0 world whereby two or more people work together, acrosss multiple interfaces, for a common goal or mutual benefit.  But cooperation is still achieved in the more traditional mode where colleagues work on assignments and/or projects within the same office setting.  Collaboration exists as different members of different departments (sales and marketing for example) within the same organization, concert their efforts and resources to advance the organization's agenda.  The internally competitive climate within organizations, that have perennially dominated American corporate culture for most of the 20th century, until recently, appears to be going the way of newspapers, compact discs, and landline telephones-inevitable extinction.  Numerous studies reveal that with the advent of business-friendly technologies and social networks, coupled with the proliferation of workplace flexibility to meet the ever-changing demands of the work-life balance of employees, the cooperative (collaborative) climate, regardless of industry, proves to be the most productive.