Achieving the Competitive Drive to Win in the Work Environment : For Improving the Company Performance

The objective of this thesis was to build an implementable system for increasing “the competitive drive to win” in the case company. Employees already show this behavior in the team building activities so it’s a missed opportunity not trying to transform the same behavior into the work environment. The case company is an e-commerce SME and has 40 employees working remotely in the Philippines, China, and Singapore. Most of the employees are Asian. The research approach for the thesis was mainly design research and applied action research. The purpose of the study was not only to understand but to change the situation at the case company. The sources included surveys, interviews, a pilot, workshops and discussions and the whole organization participated in at least some of these. The current state analysis identified nine different categories of issues why this behavior is not already showing in the daily work. The main reasons were the lack of competitive elements and supportive team structure. It is not realistic to expect competitive behavior if people do not view the work environment as a competition. The employees mentioned they are mainly motivated by money but there is no incentive program in place. These issues were addressed in the proposal. The case company felt the proposal has the potential to make a big impact on company performance and improving the company culture. The initial reactions from the employees were positive. This system is not only useful for the case company but can be applied as such to a similar e-commerce company operating on Amazon