companies. We are such social creatures
that we easily identify ourselves with our
block, our street, our town, our social set, our
party, our firm, or our department in the firm.
Like teams in any game or sport, these groups
may be rendered self-conscious and thus made
units for competition.

It is possible to create such units for
competition in business organizations. In some
instances individual employees of one firm
are pitted against those of a competing firm,
the contest proving stimulating to the men in
both. In other instances the competition is
restricted to the house, and similar departments
or sections are the units.

The closer the parallel between the units
and their activities, as in the Carnegie blast

furnaces and steel mills, the more interesting
and effective the competition becomes.

This principle has received widest recognition
and achieved greatest success in the
sales department. Here individuals are on
a footing of approximate equality or may be
given equality by a system of handicaps based
on conditions in their territories. Success
has also attended the pitting of selling districts