The world today is rife with competition. It permeates every sphere of life—from the schoolyard to the boardroom, from politics to religion. It is glorified as the engine of progress, the lifeblood of innovation, and the catalyst for both personal and organizational development.
Leaders, both secular and religious, extol it as the secret to human advancement. Yet beneath this glittering rhetoric lies a sobering paradox: competition has often served as a moral disguise for greed and inequality.
Modern society has built its faith in competition on what some have called the “pseudo-science of social Darwinism,” a distortion of Charles Darwin’s biological theory of evolution. This doctrine, rooted in Herbert Spencer’s misapplication of “survival of the fittest,” has been used to justify inequality, colonial exploitation, and the ruthless accumulation of wealth.
As Nigerian philosopher Chika Okeke-Agulu argues, “the logic of survivalism that privileges the strong over the weak is not a natural law of humanity, but a social construct designed to rationalize exploitation.” Similarly, Ghanaian economist George Ayittey observes that Africa’s development struggles have been worsened by “systems that reward predation and discourage cooperation.”
Thus, humanity’s embrace of competition as a natural and desirable condition often masks deeper moral and economic failures. The result is a world where the uneven distribution of resources and opportunities is rationalized as the inevitable outcome of a competitive order.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) notes that “the world’s richest 10 percent hold over 76 percent of global wealth, while the poorest half own less than 2 percent” (UNDP Human Development Report, 2022). Such disparities reveal not a triumph of merit, but the entrenchment of systemic inequality cloaked in the rhetoric of competitive success.
In this sense, humans have been reduced to the level of unintelligent creatures—like crabs in a pot. In their desperate scramble to escape, each crab pulls another down, ensuring that none ever makes it out. This powerful metaphor mirrors much of human society today, where individuals claw and step on one another in pursuit of wealth, status, and power. Social vices such as corruption, fraud, nepotism, and moral compromise have become normalized—collateral damage in the race to “get ahead.”
And since economic activity underpins human survival, it is unsurprising that this spirit of competition has seeped deeply into the workplace. Employees jostle for promotions, recognition, and influence, sometimes at the expense of collaboration, creativity, and ethical behavior. But this raises an urgent question: Is competition at the workplace truly beneficial? Does it elevate human potential, or does it simply perpetuate the “crab mentality” in another form?
This article seeks to explore that question from two perspectives—personal and organizational. In this part of the series, we will begin with the personal perspective, examining how competition affects individual growth, motivation, and moral integrity in the modern workplace.
The Double-Edged Sword of Workplace Competition
The debate over competition at the workplace is one of the most enduring in the fields of management and organizational psychology. Proponents argue that competition fosters excellence, drives innovation, and enhances motivation. Critics, however, contend that it corrodes teamwork, heightens stress, and undermines emotional and physical wellbeing. Both sides present compelling arguments, and understanding them is key to developing healthier organizational cultures.
The Case for Competition
Challenging Oneself
Advocates of workplace competition often highlight its capacity to push individuals beyond their comfort zones. It is argued that competition stimulates employees to learn more, perform better, and continuously improve their skills in order to “stay ahead.” As Dr. Angela Duckworth, psychologist and author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, observes, “We grow through challenge. Without it, we stagnate.”
In this sense, some believe that a certain degree of competition can sharpen creativity and innovation. According to a 2022 report by McKinsey & Company, teams that “embrace constructive competition” often exhibit higher innovation rates, as employees are driven to explore new ideas and methods to outperform peers. In Africa, where emerging economies are rapidly digitizing, competition is sometimes credited with fueling technological innovation hubs like Kenya’s Silicon Savannah and Nigeria’s fintech sector.
However, the line between constructive and destructive competition is thin. As ILO (International Labour Organization) cautions in its 2023 Work and Wellbeing Report, “When performance incentives are designed without safeguards for mental health or collaboration, competition becomes corrosive rather than catalytic.”
Sense of Accomplishment
Another commonly cited benefit is the sense of accomplishment that comes from achieving personal or professional goals in a competitive setting. Employees in competitive environments tend to set clear targets for themselves and, upon achieving them, experience a surge of self-esteem and motivation. This psychological reward, it is believed, can propel them toward even greater achievements.
Behavioral economist Dan Ariely, in his research at MIT, notes that “human beings derive meaning not merely from success, but from the perception that their success results from effort.” Thus, proponents of competition hold that it can serve as a motivational catalyst when managed within healthy boundaries—encouraging self-discipline, resilience, and continuous learning.
The Case Against Competition
While competition may appear to inspire excellence, its darker side often reveals long-term harm to the individual. Many psychologists and workplace scholars now argue that competition, far from being a motivational tool, is a source of chronic stress and alienation.
- Competition is Self-Destructive
Workplace competition has a sinister underbelly that can manifest in psychological, emotional, and physical harm. Psychologically, constant comparison with others can erode self-worth and foster a fear-driven environment. When employees fail to meet personal or organizational targets, they may internalize that failure as a reflection of personal inadequacy. This can lead to chronic anxiety, burnout, and in severe cases, depression.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), depression and anxiety cost the global economy an estimated US$1 trillion per year in lost productivity (WHO, Mental Health in the Workplace, 2022). The WHO also projects that by 2030, mental health disorders—many of them stress-related—will be among the leading causes of disability worldwide. This highlights the profound cost of competitive pressure when unchecked.
Emotionally, competition often corrodes the sense of camaraderie that healthy workplaces require. Instead of cooperation, employees begin to see one another as obstacles to success. Ghanaian management scholar Prof. Robert Hinson of the University of Ghana notes that “hyper-competition erodes the social glue of organizations—trust.” Once this trust is lost, the emotional support system that sustains morale and teamwork collapses.
The Polish magazine Wprost underscores the mind-body link: “Thoughts and emotions affect all vital organs and systems of the human body—the nervous, immune, hormonal, circulatory, and reproductive.” Prolonged stress and anxiety not only damage mental health but can lead to hypertension, insomnia, and weakened immunity.
- Workplace Competition Strains Productivity
Contrary to the popular belief that competition drives productivity, evidence increasingly suggests the opposite. When employees focus primarily on outperforming peers rather than on shared goals, creativity and innovation suffer. Harvard Business Review’s 2021 study, When Competition Becomes Counterproductive, found that “excessive internal competition leads to risk aversion, information hoarding, and decreased psychological safety—all of which suppress innovation.”
In such an environment, employees often resort to mechanical effort—working harder but not necessarily smarter—merely to stay visible or appear superior. The result is burnout, reduced collaboration, and ultimately diminished organizational performance.
The African Development Bank (AfDB), in its 2023 Human Capital Outlook, emphasizes that “Africa’s most competitive companies are not those with the fiercest internal rivalries, but those that foster collective intelligence and shared purpose.” This suggests that collaboration—not competition—is the true driver of sustainable performance.
Thus cooperation rather than competition can energize individuals and spark growth. But when it becomes a zero-sum game driven by ego, fear, or greed, it poisons the workplace and damages the very creativity it seeks to ignite. True progress requires moving beyond the crab pot mentality—where one’s rise depends on another’s fall—to a higher moral and organizational philosophy rooted in shared success and mutual upliftment.
In next part, we shift our focus from the personal to the systemic. We will explore how competition reshapes organizational culture, why it threatens rather than strengthens efficiency and creativity, and how companies can restore balance by fostering cooperation, shared purpose, and mutual respect. Just as a healthy body thrives on harmony among its organs, so too does a thriving organization depend on unity—not rivalry—among its members.
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The author is a dynamic entrepreneur and the Founder and Group CEO of Groupe Soleil Vision, made up of Soleil Consults (US), LLC, NubianBiz.com and Soleil Publications. He has an extensive background In Strategy, Management, Entrepreneurship, Premium Audit Advisory, And Web Consulting. With professional experiences spanning both Ghana and the United States, Jules has developed a reputation as a thought leader in fields such as corporate governance, leadership, e-commerce, and customer service. His publications explore a variety of topics, including economics, information technology, marketing and branding, making him a prominent voice in discussions on development and business innovation across Africa. Through NubianBiz.com, he actively champions intra-African trade and technology-driven growth to empower SMEs across the continent?.
The post The Business Strategy Analyst with Jules Nartey-Tokoli: The ethics of competition: A philosophical inquiry into human motivation and workplace culture (i) appeared first on The Business & Financial Times.
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