Sabotage in Tournaments:Evidence from a Laboratory Experiment

Although relative performance schemes are pervasive in organizations reliable empirical dataon induced sabotage behavior is almost non-existent. We study sabotage in tournaments in acontrolled laboratory experiment and are able to confirm one of the key insights from theory:effort and sabotage increase with the wage spread. Additionally, we find that even in thepresence of tournament incentives, agents react reciprocally to higher wages, whichmitigates the sabotage problem.[...]