Promotion Tournament

This paper studies the "negative" activities of members in organizations. In competing for promotion, the members not only can work to enhance their own performances, but can also work to "sabotage" their opponents in order to decrease their performances. They find it worthwhile to engage in negative activities because promotion is based on relative performance, and that its nature is all-or-nothing. We investigate the nature, determinants and impact of the negative activities. We find that abler members are subject to more attacks. Moreover, not only is there double inefficiency in effort, but also that those of the highest caliber might not have the best chance to be promoted. The paper also discusses several institutional designs to reduce the influence of negative activities