- 14 May 2014
- Working Paper Summaries
Morality Rebooted: Exploring Simple Fixes to Our Moral Bugs
Although scholars know far more now than they used to about the conditions under which individuals are likely to behave, current understandings are still primarily descriptive. This paper responds to the challenge of advancing knowledge of unethical behavior from largely descriptive research to a framework aimed to reduce or even eliminate unethical behavior in organizations. The goal is twofold: First, the authors identify approaches to mitigating unethical behavior based on empirical evidence from existing research in moral psychology and behavioral ethics. Second, they develop a framework for evaluating different strategies with prescriptive recommendations on how to reduce unethical behaviors. Overall they find that ethical fixes emerge in two broad categories: values-oriented and structure-oriented approaches. Values-oriented approaches shift people's preferences to be moral, whereas structure-oriented approaches seek to design incentives, decisions, and tasks such that the unethical option is less tempting. Based on theory and empirical findings, the authors propose that adopting both values-oriented and structure-oriented approaches mitigates the risk of adverse effects from one strategy taken from a single approach. Key concepts include: This paper discusses the power of subtle changes and shows how they can point our moral compass toward a more ethical direction. The distinction the authors draw between values-oriented and structure-oriented approaches demonstrates that there is no one right approach to reduce unethical behavior in organizations and society more broadly. The prescriptions based on ethics research discussed here are grounded in economic and psychological models of unethical behavior. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 13 May 2014
- Working Paper Summaries
The Contaminating Effects of Building Instrumental Ties: How Networking Can Make Us Feel Dirty
Network ties are essential to advancement in organizations: they provide access to opportunities, political insight, and technical knowledge. Yet networking with the goal of advancement often leaves individuals feeling somehow bad about themselves—even dirty. The authors use field and laboratory data to examine how goal-oriented or instrumental networking influences individual emotions, attitudes, and outcomes, including consequences for an individual's morality. The authors argue that networking for professional goals can impinge on an individual's moral purity—a psychological state that results from a person's view of the self as clean from a moral standpoint and through which a person feels virtuous—and thus make him or her feel dirty. There are three main insights: First, the authors show the importance of a clear conceptual distinction between instrumental networking driven by individual agency versus spontaneous networking reflecting the constraints and opportunities of the social context. Second, the research establishes the relevance of moral psychology for network theory. Third, because people in powerful positions do not experience the morally contaminating effects of instrumental networking, power emerges from this research as yielding unequal access to networking opportunities, thus reinforcing and perpetuating inequality in performance. Key concepts include: Professional-instrumental networking is the purposeful creation of social ties in support of task and professional goals. The content and approach of networking each influence the psychological experience of those engaging in it, including a person's feelings of moral purity. The amount of power people have when they engage in instrumental networking for professional goals influences how dirty such networking can make them feel. Organizations need to create opportunities for emergent forms of networking, because people who need instrumental networking the most are the least likely to do it. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 09 May 2014
- Working Paper Summaries
‘My Bad!’ How Internal Attribution and Ambiguity of Responsibility Affect Learning from Failure
As scholars and practitioners have observed, failure clearly presents a valuable opportunity for learning in organizations. All too often, however, the opportunity is lost. Indeed, prior studies on the topic suggest that, perhaps ironically, such learning often fails to occur. In this paper the authors begin to uncover when and why individuals are more likely to learn from failed experiences. Specifically, they present evidence from three studies that support a conceptual model of learning from failure as operating through individuals' internal attributions of failure, driven in part by low ambiguity of responsibility, that lead to increased learning effort and subsequent improvement. The paper thus makes theoretical advances and carries implications for managers. Theoretically, the authors focus attention on the role of attribution in learning from failure, showing that attribution style is an important moderator of the relationship between failure and learning. Next, they identify a key situational determinant of individuals' responses to failure: ambiguity of responsibility. Third, they highlight the key role of effort as a mechanism for the effects of learning from failure. For managers, these results emphasize a specific measure that organizational leaders might take before an experience to enhance learning: actively managing perceptions of ambiguity of responsibility. Key concepts include: This paper offers a more nuanced view of learning that provides an integrated conceptual model for understanding individual learning from failure. Managers in organizations should think carefully about how ambiguity of responsibility is likely to play out in their context, utilizing strategies such as job design to help to limit this effect. Upfront planning might remove possible barriers that would increase ambiguity of responsibility. Feedback could influence these ambiguity perceptions as well. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 18 Nov 2013
- Research & Ideas
Pulpit Bullies: Why Dominating Leaders Kill Teams
Power interrupts, and absolute power interrupts absolutely. Francesca Gino and colleagues discover that a high-powered boss can lead a team into poor performance. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 25 Jul 2013
- Research & Ideas
Why Unqualified Candidates Get Hired Anyway
Why do businesses evaluate candidates solely on past job performance, failing to consider the job's difficulty? Why do university admissions officers focus on high GPAs, discounting influence of easy grading standards? Francesca Gino and colleagues investigate the phenomenon of the "fundamental attribution error." Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 27 Feb 2013
- Research & Ideas
Sidetracked: Why Can’t We Stick to the Plan?
In her new book, Sidetracked, behavioral scientist and professor Francesca Gino explores the unexpected forces that often keep people from following through with their plans, both professional and personal. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 17 Sep 2012
- Research & Ideas
Blue Skies, Distractions Arise: How Weather Affects Productivity
New studies show that workers are more productive on rainy days than on sunny ones. Does your office take advantage? Research by Francesca Gino and colleagues. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 05 Sep 2012
- First Look
First Look: September 5
Critiquing a PowerPoint presentation ... Meaningless motivation? ... Putting strategy to the scientific method. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 14 Aug 2012
- Working Paper Summaries
Rainmakers: Why Bad Weather Means Good Productivity
Most people believe that bad weather conditions reduce productivity. In this research the authors predict and find just the opposite. Using empirical data from laboratory experiments as well as from a mid-sized Japanese bank, the research demonstrates that weather conditions influence one's own cognition and focus. For indoor work contexts, worker productivity is higher on bad rather than good weather days. By reducing the potential for cognitive distractions, bad weather was actually better at sustaining individuals' attention and focus, and, as a result, increasing their productivity. Overall, findings deepen understanding of the factors that contribute to worker productivity. Key concepts include: Seemingly irrelevant factors that managers cannot control, such as weather, may have powerful effects on workers' productivity. Organizations could assign more clerical work on rainy days than sunny days to tap into the effects of bad weather on productivity, assigning work that does not require sustained attention but does allow for more flexibility in thinking. There is a significant gap between people's general beliefs about the effects of weather on their productivity and the actual effect of weather on their behavior. Despite the widespread belief that bad weather conditions are related to low productivity, this research provides compelling evidence that people are less productive on good weather days because their attentional resources are more likely to be depleted when they have more choices (such as outdoor activities), and face higher opportunity costs of being indoors. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 01 May 2012
- First Look
First Look: May 1
Understanding dishonesty … The downside of CSR programs … Construction crisis in India. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 17 Feb 2012
- Working Paper Summaries
Breaking Them In or Revealing Their Best? Reframing Socialization around Newcomer Self-Expression
How can organizations build strong, sustainable employment relationships from the very start? To date, the socialization literature has focused on transmitting and maintaining culture so that new employees accept the organizational values and behavioral norms. Many organizations require newcomers to wear standard wardrobes, forbid personal possessions, follow detailed verbal scripts, and enforce appropriate displays of emotion all designed to hinder individuality. In two studies described in this paper, the authors found that organizational and employee outcomes were better when socialization tactics encouraged authentic self-expression of newcomers' personal identities and signature strengths. Organizational socialization is optimized when organizations start by recognizing and highlighting newcomers' unique identities at the very beginning of the employment relationship, when identity negotiation is a critical concern for both parties. Key concepts include: Given the appropriate encouragement, newcomers can frame their new role and the necessary tasks as opportunities to use their personal strengths, thereby engaging with the work in a more personally fulfilling and productive manner. Both organizations and their members benefit when the concepts of newcomer authenticity and self-expression are integrated into socialization processes. There are surprisingly large and valuable changes in employees' quality and retention when organizations make relatively small investments in socialization practices that focus on newcomers' personal identities. Perhaps the best way to develop organizational commitment is for the organization to commit to each of its individuals by highlighting and encouraging the daily use of their unique strengths. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 15 Feb 2012
- Working Paper Summaries
Learning from My Success and From Others’ Failure: Evidence from Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery
cases they attribute the outcomes to internal rather than external factors. This research has implications for healthcare and organizations more generally. Research by KC Diwas, Bradley R. Staats, and Francesca Gino. Key concepts include: Individuals learn more from their own success than from their Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 14 Feb 2012
- First Look
First Look: February 14
Hypocritical behavior ... Strategy shift at PepsiCo ... Building trust from failure Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 26 Jan 2012
- Working Paper Summaries
Behavioral Ethics: Toward a Deeper Understanding of Moral Judgment and Dishonesty
What makes even good people cross ethical boundaries? Society demands that business and professional schools address ethics, but the results have been disappointing. This paper argues that a behavioral approach to ethics is essential because it leads to understanding and explaining moral and immoral behavior in systematic ways. The authors first define business ethics and provide an admittedly biased history of the attempts of professional schools to address ethics as a subject of both teaching and research. They next briefly summarize the emergence of the field of behavioral ethics over the last two decades, and turn to recent research findings in behavioral ethics that could provide helpful directions for a social science perspective to ethics. These new findings on both intentional and unintentional unethical behavior can inform new courses on ethics as well as new research investigations. Such new directions can meet the demands of society more effectively than past attempts of professional schools. They can also produce a meaningful and significant change in the behavior of both business school students and professionals. Key concepts include: Shifting the modes of thought can lead to profound differences in how we make ethical decisions. This has implications at the individual and at the societal level. Until recently, little empirical attention was given to how people actually behave when they face ethical dilemmas and decisions or to how their behavior can be improved. A behavioral ethics approach does not teach students how they should behave when facing ethical dilemmas, nor inform them about what philosophers or ethicists would recommend. Instead it sees an opportunity in helping students and professionals better understand their own behavior in the ethics domain, and compare it to how they would ideally like to behave. Behavioral ethics identifies levers at both the individual and the institutional level to change ethically questionable behaviors when individuals are acting in unethical ways that they would not endorse with greater reflection. Prior to the 1990s, it was rare for professional schools to have a significant focus on the area of ethics (or business ethics more specifically) in the courses offered to students. Courses that were taught used philosophical approaches or suggested that morality is a rather stable personality trait that individuals develop by going through differences phases of development. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 07 Dec 2011
- Research & Ideas
Are Creative People More Dishonest?
In a series of studies, Francesca Gino and Dan Ariely found that inherently creative people tend to cheat more than noncreative people. Furthermore, they showed that inducing creative behavior tends to induce unethical behavior. It's a sobering thought in a corporate culture that champions out-of-the-box thinking. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 02 Jun 2011
- Research & Ideas
Signing at the Top: The Key to Preventing Tax Fraud?
In filling out self-reported documents such as tax forms, we declare the information truthful with our signature, but usually we sign at the end of the form. Researchers Francesca Gino and Lisa Shu discuss whether governments and companies can bolster honesty simply by moving the honesty pledge and signature line to the top of the form, before people encounter the opportunity to cheat. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 01 Apr 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
When Power Makes Others Speechless: The Negative Impact of Leader Power on Team Performance
Leigh Plunkett Tost of the University of Washington, Francesca Gino of Harvard Business School, and Richard P. Larrick of Duke University. Key concepts include: Members of teams with high-power leaders are likely to keep quiet in meetings, both because high-power leaders talk a lot, meaning there's not Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 16 Mar 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
Driven by Social Comparisons: How Feedback about Coworkers’ Effort Influences Individual Productivity
Francesca Gino and Bradley R. Staats explore how the valence (positive versus negative), type (direct versus indirect), and timing (one-shot versus persistent) of performance feedback affects an employee's job productivity. Specifically, through field experiments at a Japanese bank, they Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 08 Mar 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
Memory Lane and Morality: How Childhood Memories Promote Prosocial Behavior
both in social settings and in the workplace. Research was conducted by Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino and Sreedhari D. Desai of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. Key concepts include: Through four experiments, the researchers show that triggering Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
Handshaking Promotes Cooperative Dealmaking
A simple handshake can have large consequences for a negotiation. In this paper the authors suggest that handshakes before negotiations—or the lack thereof—serve as subtle but critical indicators of negotiators' social motives. In particular, handshakes signal willingness to act cooperatively during negotiations. The authors propose and show through experiments that handshakes increase cooperative behaviors at the bargaining table and, as a result, influence outcomes in both integrative and distributive negotiations. Integrative negotiations are those in which parties' interests are neither completely opposed nor completely compatible, allowing negotiators to mutually benefit by making efficient trades. In contrast, distributive or "zero-sum" negotiations—in which the parties' interests are completely opposed—are characterized by a different set of strategies such as appearing firm and even lying about one's interests. Overall, these results contribute to research and scholarship on social motives. The work also has practical implications for the importance of building rapport in negotiation and conflicts more generally. Key concepts include: Simply shaking hands before negotiations can increase cooperation at the bargaining table. The social ritual of shaking hands can have positive effects even in antagonistic settings such as negotiations between parties in conflict. A simple everyday ritual such as a handshake can create positive outcomes not just for individuals, but for parties in conflict. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.