Nice guys don't always finish last: succeeding in hierarchical organizations

TL;DR

This paper models hierarchical organizations as a tournament to analyze how ethical individuals can succeed despite unethical peers, showing that under certain conditions, ethical players may have higher chances of winning.

Contribution

It introduces a game-theoretic model of organizational hierarchy with sabotage, revealing conditions where ethical individuals outperform unethical ones.

Findings

Ethical players can outperform unethical peers under specific conditions.

The model demonstrates the potential advantage of ethical behavior in hierarchical success.

Results suggest ethical individuals may have higher success probabilities in certain organizational settings.

Abstract

What are the chances of an ethical individual rising through the ranks of a political party or a corporation in the presence of unethical peers? To answer this question, I consider a four-player two-stage elimination tournament, in which players are partitioned into those willing to be involved in sabotage behavior and those who are not. I show that, under certain conditions, the latter are more likely to win the tournament.