When club teammates become World Cup rivals

In today’s interconnected professional world, employees often have affiliations outside their primary workplace. This phenomenon can be harmless—or even beneficial—until two employees find themselves representing rival entities. The article “When Colleagues Compete Outside the Firm” by Thorsten Grohsjean of Bocconi University’s Department of Management and Technology, Henning Piezunka of the Wharton School, and Maren Mickeler of ESSEC Business School published in the Strategic Management Journal offers fascinating insights into this dynamic by examining an unusual case: professional soccer players who become rivals on national teams while playing as club teammates. The study’s focus is a critical yet understudied setting: when coworkers who typically collaborate within an organization engage in competition outside of it. Using data from the 2018 FIFA World Cup and top European soccer leagues, the researchers observed that teammates who competed against each other on opposing national teams subsequently reduced collaboration within their shared clubs, as evidenced by a significant decrease in passes exchanged during club games. As Thorsten Grohsjean notes, “The interplay between extra-organizational affiliations and internal collaboration is complex, yet our findings demonstrate a measurable effect: after facing each other as competitors, teammates exhibited a notable reluctance to collaborate at club level.”