One-upmanship, also called "one-upsmanship",
is the art or practice of successively outdoing a
competitor. The term was first used in the title of a book by
Stephen Potter
Stephen Meredith Potter (1 February 1900 – 2 December 1969) was a British writer best known for his parodies of self-help books, and their film and television derivatives.
After leaving school in the last months of the First World War he wa ...
, published in 1952 as a follow-up to ''The Theory and Practice of
Gamesmanship (or the Art of Winning Games without Actually Cheating)'' (1947), and ''Lifemanship'' titles in his series of
tongue-in-cheek
The idiom tongue-in-cheek refers to a humorous or sarcastic statement expressed in a serious manner.
History
The phrase originally expressed contempt, but by 1842 had acquired its modern meaning. Early users of the phrase include Sir Walter Scott ...
self-help book
A self-help book is one that is written with the intention to instruct its readers on solving personal problems. The books take their name from ''Self-Help'', an 1859 best-seller by Samuel Smiles, but are also known and classified under "self-im ...
s, and film and television derivatives, that teach various ploys to achieve this. This comic
satire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...
of
self-help
Self-help or self-improvement is a self-guided improvement''APA Dictionary of Physicology'', 1st ed., Gary R. VandenBos, ed., Washington: American Psychological Association, 2007.—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a subst ...
style guides manipulates traditional British conventions for the gamester, all life being a game, who understands that ''if you're not one-up, you're one-down.'' Potter's unprincipled principles apply to almost any possession, experience or situation, deriving maximum undeserved rewards and discomfitting the opposition. The 1960 film
''School for Scoundrels'' and its
2006 remake were satiric portrayals of how to use Potter's ideas.
In that context, the term refers to a satiric course in the
gambits required for the systematic and conscious practice of "creative intimidation", making one's associates feel inferior and thereby gaining the status of being "one-up" on them. Viewed seriously, it is a phenomenon of
group dynamics that can have significant effects in the
management
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activities o ...
field: for instance, manifesting in
office politics Workplace politics is the process and behavior that in human interactions involves power and authority. It is also a tool to assess the operational capacity and to balance diverse views of interested parties. It is also known as office politics and ...
.
See also
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Arms race
An arms race occurs when two or more groups compete in military superiority. It consists of a competition between two or more states to have superior armed forces; a competition concerning production of weapons, the growth of a military, and t ...
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Competition
Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indivi ...
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The Dozens
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Gaming the system
Gaming the system (also rigging, abusing, cheating, milking, playing, working, or breaking the system, or gaming or bending the rules) can be defined as using the rules and procedures meant to protect a system to, instead, Psychological manipula ...
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Mind games
Playing mind games (also power games or head games) is the largely conscious struggle for psychological one-upmanship, often employing passive–aggressive behavior to specifically demoralize or dis-empower the thinking subject, making the a ...
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Opportunism
Opportunism is the practice of taking advantage of circumstances – with little regard for principles or with what the consequences are for others. Opportunist actions are expedient actions guided primarily by self-interested motives. The term ...
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Winning streak
A winning streak, also known as a win streak or hot streak, is an uninterrupted sequence of success in games or competitions, commonly measured by at least 4 wins that are uninterrupted by losses or ties/draws. Although sometimes claimed as a ...
References
External links
{{Narcissism
Competition
Group processes
Ethically disputed practices