Making the Team: A Guide for Managers, Fifth Edition

Chapter 12 Interteam Relations

Balancing Competition and Cooperation

As 2012 came to a close, Democrats and Republicans in Congress fought bitterly over the so-called fiscal cliff, the expiration of various George W. Bush–era tax cuts coupled with a severe automatic decrease in government spending, resulting from a failed agreement on spending cuts the previous year. Both items were set to expire on January 1, 2013. The competition between teams of politicians revealed two opposing views of how the nation should be governed. On one side of the political boxing ring was President Obama and his constituents, who insisted that Bush tax cuts be extended for everyone except Americans making more than $250,000 a year. On the other side of the boxing ...