Cooperation and Competition

Being successful in today's business environment requires more nuanced thinking than just stressing competition. Consider General Electric, which found that a highly effective way to improve its KPIs in the aircraft engine market was to actually partner with a competitor. It seems counter-intuitive, but it worked. When General Electric and Snecma created an alliance to build aircraft engines, General Electric shielded certain sections of the production process to protect against the excess transfer of technology ("Snecma, GE Renew CFM Agreement," 2008).

Consider the dynamics of cooperation and competition in the future business environment. For organizations that are in an environment of increasing cooperation/competition, consider the proactive role the HR department can serve in helping the C-suite think about balancing competition and cooperation. As part of the Discussion, give specific examples.

With these thoughts in mind:

· Conduct additional research to analyze the dynamics of cooperation and competition in future business environments.

o From your research, discuss specific ideas or concepts regarding what proactive role can the HR department serve in helping the C-suite think about balancing competition and cooperation?

o Does cooperation/competition require equal resources from all partners?

- How are the decisions made about the levels of resources committed by each partner?
- If there is a wide disparity in net worth or market share of the partners, is it reasonable to expect each to commit the same percentage of resources?

o How are conflicts around cooperation and competition anticipated, planned for, and resolved by the HR department?

Resources

Gupta, A., & Wang, H. (2011, August 27). Partnering up the smart way. South China Morning Post, B6. Used by permission of Senior Manager of Content Resources, Estella Liang.

Hutzschenreuter, T., & Horstkotte, J. (2010). Knowledge transfer to partners: A firm level perspective.Journal of Knowledge Management, 14(3), 428-448.

Peng, T. (2011). Resource fit in inter-firm partnership: Intellectual capital perspective. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 12(1), 20-42.