Maurice Schweitzer - Faculty Research in Knowledge@Wharton

Is This Madness? How Losing by Just a Little Can Help a Team -- or Company -- Win

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:34:51 EST

Pay attention to the first-half scores in the early rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament, which began yesterday with 64 college teams vying for the National Collegiate Athletic Association championship. According to recent research by a pair of Wharton professors, teams that trail by a little at the half actually have a better chance of winning the game than the squad in the lead. The findings, they say, apply to the business world, too.

The Other Banking Drama: Those Secret Swiss Accounts

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 14:25:43 EST

Tax authorities in the United States have challenged long-standing Swiss banking secrecy laws, demanding that UBS AG release the names of 52,000 Americans suspected of opening secret accounts to evade taxes. The bank agreed to release client information on 250 U.S. citizens and pay a $780 million fine as part of a settlement, but that decision has put the entire Swiss banking system in jeopardy, according to Wharton faculty.

'Goals Gone Wild': How Goal Setting Can Lead to Disaster

Wed, 18 Feb 2009 17:51:20 EST

Despite evidence that ambitious goal setting can hurt productivity, damage a company's reputation and violate ethical standards, its use has become endemic in American business practice and scholarship, even spilling over to the debate on how to improve America's public schools. A new paper by Wharton operations and information management professor Maurice E. Schweitzer and three co-authors documents the hazards of corporate goal setting and concludes that it is overprescribed.

The Bernard Madoff Case: Trust Takes Another Blow

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:53:55 EST

Successful marketplaces -- indeed, all social systems -- require a level of ethical behavior among their participants. In an interview with Knowledge@Wharton, professors Maurice E. Schweitzer and G. Richard Shell, who have conducted extensive research on the role of trust in markets, explain why even the most sophisticated investors put their faith in Bernard Madoff, the New York City financier recently accused of running a $50 billion Ponzi scheme. That breach of trust has damaged the broader markets, Schweitzer and Shell say.

'Feeling the Love' (or Anger): How Emotions Can Distort the Way We Respond to Advice

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:54:21 EST

Here's a piece of advice: Don't read this story if you have just had a fight with your spouse or a co-worker. You will probably ignore it, despite its grounding in solid academic research. At least that's what Maurice Schweitzer, a Wharton professor of operations and information management, would suggest. In a recent co-authored paper, he shows that emotions not only influence people's receptiveness to advice but they do so even when the emotions have no link to the advice or the adviser.

Baseball, Steroids and Business Ethics: How Breaches of Trust Can Change the Game

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:18:03 EST

When former Senator George Mitchell finally released his report on performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball last December, many of its conclusions came as no surprise to baseball fans, most of whom had heard the allegations of steroid use for years. With fans aware of such egregious behavior, why has attendance at games continued to climb? Are baseball's "consumers" impervious to ethical lapses? No, say Wharton professors, but the case demonstrates how bias, competition and a lack of oversight can work together to create an ethically toxic atmosphere -- in any field.

Can't Run, Can't Hide: New Rules of Engagement for Crisis Management

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 15:42:32 EST

The corporate apologies are piling up. Mattel CEO Robert Eckert apologized on September 12 for lead paint found in millions of the company's toys. TD Ameritrade CEO Joe Moglia apologized on September 14 for a database breach. Apple CEO Steve Jobs apologized on September 6 for cutting the price of the high-end iPhone. Dell executives apologized in August for delayed deliveries of certain models. JetBlue apologized in February for canceling flights and leaving passengers stranded during an ice storm. While executives moved quickly to stem damage to their companies' reputations, it takes more than speed to manage a crisis. As Wharton experts and others point out, the rules governing crisis management have changed.

Promises, Lies and Apologies: Is It Possible to Restore Trust?

Wed, 26 Jul 2006 12:03:13 EST

In the workplace, trust is essential to day-to-day business, whether it's one colleague trusting that another will do her share of a project, an employee trusting that his boss will reward him for working long hours to meet a deadline, or a customer trusting that a company will fill an order correctly and deliver it on time. The intertwining issues of trust, deception, apologies and promises are explored in a new research paper titled, "Promises and Lies: Restoring Violated Trust," by three Wharton professors who came up with a unique laboratory experiment to see what happens when trust breaks down. "While deception may be tempting because it can be used to increase short-term profits for the deceiver," the researchers note, "we find that the long-term costs of deception are very high."

A Million Little Embellishments: Truth and Trust in Advertising and Publishing

Wed, 22 Feb 2006 16:56:24 EST

The disclosure that author James Frey lied in his best-selling book, A Million Little Pieces, and the furor that followed raise numerous questions about truth in advertising, trust between sellers and buyers, brand image and reputation, as well as two themes that Frey himself focused on in his now-discredited memoir of recovery from substance abuse -- suffering and redemption. How widespread is deception, when is stretching the truth acceptable, how jaded are consumers towards the claims made by advertisers, and how credible was Oprah's response to the Frey incident? Wharton experts offer their views on truth and fiction.

Looking to Make a Sale or Get Promoted? Emotions Will Help Determine the Outcome

Wed, 27 Jul 2005 16:50:59 EST

High emotion contributes to great opera. It does not, however, serve us well when making judgments about others. This is the argument advanced in "Feeling and Believing: The Influence of Emotion on Trust," a new paper by Maurice E. Schweitzer, Wharton professor of operations and information management, and PhD student Jennifer Dunn. The two researchers show how incidental emotions -- emotions from one situation that influence judgment in a following, unrelated situation -- affect our willingness to trust others, and thus our responses in certain business and social contexts. As Schweitzer puts it: "Did you give someone a big contract because of his reputation for dependability or because he told you a funny, uplifting story prior to making the deal?"

A Growing Corporate Club: The Founding Felon

Wed, 25 Aug 2004 14:35:51 EST

Along with Martha Stewart, some of the biggest names in the current wave of corporate criminal cases are company founders – Kenneth Lay of Enron, Bernie Ebbers of WorldCom, John Rigas of Adelphia Communications, Steve Madden, founder of the shoe company that bears his name, and Sam Waksal of Imclone Systems. While most founders are never even summoned to court, they have a deep connection to their companies, making those firms especially vulnerable if their founders turn out to be felons, according to Wharton faculty and other experts.

Goal setting and Cheating: Why They Often Go Together in the Workplace

Wed, 28 Jul 2004 12:53:59 EST

From childhood on, individuals are told that setting goals for themselves will make them more successful in whatever they set out to do – whether it’s win tennis games, ace their exams or become CEO of their company. But goal-setting also has a dark side to it, according to a recent research paper by a Wharton faculty member and two colleagues. In addition to motivating constructive behavior, goal setting – especially when it involves rewards such as bonuses or perks – can also motivate unethical behavior when people fall short of the goals they set or that are set for them.

The Input Bias: How Managers Misuse Information When Making Decisions

Wed, 10 Sep 2003 00:00:00 EST

Fans of the hit TV comedy �The Jerry Seinfeld Show� may remember an episode in which Jerry�s friend George leaves his car parked at work so that the boss will think George is putting in long hours, even when he�s not. The idea, of course, is that George�s apparent productivity will net him a higher raise or bonus. Wharton professor Maurice Schweitzer would call George�s behavior �an attempt to invoke the input bias � the use of input information (in this case the false impression of long hours) to judge outcomes.� As extreme as this example might seem, business decisions are frequently made based on input that is either biased or manipulated, as Schweitzer and colleague Karen Chinander suggest in a new paper entitled, �The Input Bias: The Misuse of Input Information in Judgments of Outcomes.�

2002: The Year of the Apology

Wed, 04 Dec 2002 00:00:00 EST

Earlier this fall, Safeway, a food retailer based in Pleasanton, Calif., took out radio and television ads apologizing to customers of some recently-acquired grocery stores for changes in these stores� operations. Safeway joined what seems to be a long list of apologizers � from investment bankers to fast food corporations � who have recently expressed regret for a variety of mistakes. With a year full of apologies now coming to a close, Knowledge@Wharton looks at how effective apologies are, what they signal, when they should be offered and whether they can backfire.

How Deception, Reputation and E-mail Can Affect Your Negotiating Strategy

Wed, 23 May 2001 00:00:00 EST

How widespread is deception in negotiation and how can you detect it? What are the pros and cons of using e-mail during the negotiating process? How does a good, or bad, reputation influence the outcome of a negotiation? In a new book entitled �Wharton on Making Decisions,� three faculty members discuss these issues and offer advice on how to improve your bargaining ability.