This book is about how to implement creative competition within an organization. It examines the conditions under which internal competition can promote knowledge acquisition and knowledge sharing. The book describes a number of studies of sales departments in Japanese firms. Sales departments in Japanese firms were studied because internal competition is getting fiercer in these departments following the recent introduction of performance-based compensation. Exploratory case studies of ORIX Corporation and Japan Computer were conducted in order to generate research hypotheses. To gather quantitative data and test the hypotheses drawn from the case studies, a questionnaire survey of sales departments of Japanese firms listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange was carried out. The findings reported in the book shed new light not only on internal competition theory, but also provide new insights into the theories on knowledge creation and intra-organizational conflict.

This book is to provide insights into the process of individual unlearning, which is little known in previous studies. This is the first book that described how employees should unlearn, i.e., abandon obsolete and outdated beliefs or routines to acquire new ones, at workplace. Updating old knowledge and skills to new one is crucial not only for organizations but also for individuals to survive in today's competitive and turbulent environment. It provides readers with mechanisms by which personal factors, such as goal orientation, reflection, and critical reflection, and promotes employees' unlearning under the influence of situational factors such as supervisors' behaviors and promotion of the positions. Based on the findings by quantitative and qualitative analyses using questionnaire survey and interviews, this book is highly recommended to readers who are interested in higher-order learning process for self-change at work in the fields of organizational behavior and human resources development.