Ethics →
- 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.
- 31 Oct 2011
- Research & Ideas
The Most Powerful Workplace Motivator
When evaluating compensation issues, economists often assume that both an employer and an employee make rational, albeit self-interested choices while working toward a goal. The problem, says Assistant Professor Ian Larkin, is that the most powerful workplace motivator is our natural tendency to measure our own performance against the performance of others. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 15 Sep 2011
- Research & Ideas
High Ambition Leadership
Higher-ambition business leaders skillfully integrate both economic and social value. Professor Emeritus Michael Beer explains what makes them special, and how you can learn what they know, in his new book, Higher Ambition: How Great Leaders Create Economic and Social Value. Q&A plus book excerpt. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 06 Sep 2011
- Research & Ideas
The Power of Leadership Groups for Staying on Track
Twenty-first-century organizations are breaking with traditional command-and-control hierarchies to develop a new generation of values-centered leadership, argues Professor Bill George, author of True North. The best way to get there? True North Groups. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 19 Jul 2011
- Research & Ideas
Rupert Murdoch and the Seeds of Moral Hazard
Harvard Business School faculty Michel Anteby, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, and Robert Steven Kaplan explore the moral, ethical, and leadership issues behind Rupert Murdoch's News of the World fiasco. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 06 Jul 2011
- Research & Ideas
Are You a Level-Six Leader?
Asking the question, whom do you serve? is a powerful vector on which to build a useful typology of leadership. Visiting professor Modesto Maidique offers a six-level Purpose-Driven Model of Leadership ranging from Sociopath to Transcendent. Key concepts include: The most telling question to ask a leader is, whom do you serve? Yourself? Your group? Society? The answer to this question often reveals more about leaders than knowing their personality traits, level of achievement, or whether they were "transformational" or "transactional" leaders. The six levels of leadership are Sociopath, Opportunist, Chameleon, Achiever, Builder, and Transcendent. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 22 Jun 2011
- Sharpening Your Skills
Sharpening Your Skills: Motivation
Can employers motivate employees to work more creatively, ethically, or productively? Or does that power reside solely within the individual? Recent research at Harvard Business School suggests workers can be motivated by their environment. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 06 Jun 2011
- Research & Ideas
Why Leaders Lose Their Way
Bill George discusses how powerful people lose their moral bearings. To stay grounded executives must prepare themselves to confront enormous complexities and pressures. Open 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.
- 05 May 2011
- What Do You Think?
How Ethical Can We Be?
Summing Up Managers like to think they act ethically, but at the end of the day ethical action is subjective, readers tell Jim Heskett. Reaction to the new book Blind Spots. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 20 Apr 2011
- Research & Ideas
Blind Spots: We’re Not as Ethical as We Think
Even when we think we are making principled decisions, recent research reveals we are not as ethical as we would like to believe. Professor Max H. Bazerman discusses his new book, Blind Spots: Why We Fail to Do What's Right and What to Do about It. Plus: Book excerpt. Key concepts include: Good people do bad things without being aware that they are doing anything wrong. Motivational blindness is the tendency to not notice the unethical actions of others when it is against our own best interests to notice. The "want" self—that part of us that behaves according to self-interest and, often, without regard for moral principles—is silent during the planning stage of a decision but typically emerges and dominates at the time of the decision. Organizations can monitor how they are creating institutions, structures, and incentives that increase the likelihood of unethical actions, while individuals can "precommit" to intended ethical choices. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 08 Mar 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
Memory Lane and Morality: How Childhood Memories Promote Prosocial Behavior
Little Damien from The Omen notwithstanding, we generally associate childhood with goodness, purity, and innocence. This paper investigates whether feelings of moral purity can be triggered by reminding adults of their childhoods, and whether this can help to induce kind and philanthropic 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 childhood memories induces feelings of moral purity in adults, which leads them to behave pro-socially—that is, to do kind, ethical things that benefit others. Recalling childhood memories also can lead adults to judge (and punish) unethical behavior more harshly than they would have otherwise. Businesses can promote positive, ethical behavior by using tasks and triggers that cause employees to hearken back to their childhoods. For example, Google, Disney, and IDEO decorate their offices with toys and colorful furniture. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 28 Feb 2011
- Research & Ideas
The Importance of ‘Don’t’ in Inducing Ethical Employee Behavior
In a new study, HBS professors Francesca Gino and Joshua D. Margolis look at two ways that companies can encourage ethical behavior: the promotion of good deeds or the prevention of bad deeds. It turns out that employees tend to act more ethically when focused on what not to do. That can be problematic in firms where success is commonly framed in terms of advancement of positive outcomes rather than prevention of bad ones. Key concepts include: In general, there are two ways a company can encourage ethical conduct among its employees: either the promotion of good actions and outcomes or the prevention of bad ones. Through several experiments, the professors found that inducing a prevention focus will lead to ethical behavior more than inducing a promotion focus. In encouraging ethical behavior among employees, it behooves firms to consider focusing on preventing negative outcomes, not only in creating a code of ethics but also in setting goals and framing task directives. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 10 Feb 2011
- Working Paper Summaries
The Dark Side of Creativity: Original Thinkers Can Be More Dishonest
Anyone who has spent significant time with artists knows that creative genius often comes with a dark side. This paper offers experimental evidence, specifically with regard to the relationship between creativity and unethical behavior. Research involving four experiments with university students was conducted by Francesca Gino of Harvard Business School and Dan Ariely of the Fuqua School of Business. Key concepts include: Creative students who showed a natural aptitude for divergent thinking tended to cheat more than linear thinkers. Creativity is a better predictor of unethical behavior than intelligence. Students who were deliberately induced to think creatively were, in turn, more likely to cheat than those who weren't primed to think outside the box. Creative people are more likely to cheat in part because their creativity helps them to come up with ingenious explanations to justify their unethical behavior. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 24 Jan 2011
- HBS Case
Terror at the Taj
Under terrorist attack, employees of the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower bravely stayed at their posts to help guests. A look at the hotel's customer-centered culture and value system. Open for comment; 0 Comments.
- 03 Dec 2010
- Working Paper Summaries
Creating Leaders: An Ontological Model
HBS professor emeritus Michael C. Jensen and coauthors have created an ontological approach to creating leaders in which leadership emerges through spontaneous and intuitive natural self-expression. Key concepts include: The ontological model of leader and leadership opens up and reveals the actual nature of being when one is being a leader. It also opens up and reveals the source of one's actions when exercising leadership. Ontology's associated phenomenological methodology provides actionable access to what has been opened up. Students do not need to study ontology or phenomenology. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 07 Sep 2010
- Research & Ideas
Mindful Leadership: When East Meets West
Harvard Business School professor William George is fusing Western understanding about leadership with Eastern wisdom about the mind to develop leaders who are self-aware and self-compassionate. An interview about his recent Mindful Leadership conference taught with a Buddhist meditation master. Key concepts include: People who are mindful—fully present and aware—can become more effective leaders. Leaders with low emotional intelligence often lack self-awareness and self-compassion, which can lead to a lack of self-regulation. Authenticity is developed by becoming more self-aware and having compassion for oneself. Group support provides nonjudgmental feedback in order to recognize blind spots, accept shortcomings, and gain confidence. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 02 Sep 2010
- What Do You Think?
How Transparent Should Boards Be?
Summing Up: When should boards fire CEOs? How transparent should boards be? Jim Heskett's readers are divided as they look at the HP/Mark Hurd case. What do you think? (Online forum has closed; next forum opens October 8.) Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
- 13 May 2010
- Working Paper Summaries
Just Say No to Wall Street: Putting A Stop to the Earnings Game
Over the last decade, companies have struggled to meet analysts' expectations. Analysts have challenged the companies they covered to reach for unprecedented earnings growth, and executives have often acquiesced to analysts' increasingly unrealistic projections, adopting them as a basis for setting goals for their organizations. As Monitor Group cofounder Joseph Fuller and HBS professor emeritus Michael C. Jensen write, improving future relations between Main Street and Wall Street and putting an end to the destructive "earnings game" between analysts and executives will require a new approach to disclosure based on a few simple rules of engagement. (This article originally appeared in the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance in the Winter 2002 issue.) Key concepts include: Managers must confront the capital markets with courage and conviction. Managers must be forthright and promise only those results they have a legitimate prospect of delivering, and they must be clear about the risks and uncertainties involved. Managers must recognize that an overvalued stock can be damaging to the long-run health of the company, particularly when it serves as a pretext for overpriced acquisitions. Managers must work to make their organizations more transparent to investors and to the markets. To limit wishful thinking, managers must reconcile their own company's projections to those of the industry and their rivals. While recent history may have obscured the analyst role, managers should not simply presume that analysts are wrong when disagreement occurs. In fact, analysts have a vital monitoring role to play in a market economy. Closed for comment; 0 Comments.
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.