Cunningham Public Lecture - "Bounded ethicality"

Max H. Bazerman, Straus Professor, Harvard Business School

Date: March 19, 2013
Location: Goodes Hall, Room 108 West
Time: 4:30p.m. – 5:30 p.m., reception to follow 
RSVP Required: research@business.queensu.ca 

Bounded ethicality describes the systematic and predictable psychological processes that lead people to engage in ethically questionable behaviors that are inconsistent with their own preferred ethics.  This perspective explains how an executive can make a decision that not only harms others, but is also inconsistent with his or her conscious beliefs and preferences.  The talk will cover the ways in which we exhibit bounded ethicality, why we do not notice the unethical actions of others, and how to nudge more ethical behavior. 

Biography

Max H. Bazerman is the Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration at HBS.  In addition to being the Straus Professor at the Harvard Business School, Max is formally affiliated with the Harvard, Kennedy School of Government, the Psychology Department, and the Program on Negotiation.

Max's research focuses on decision making, negotiation, and ethics. He is the author, co-author, or co-editor of nineteen books (including Blind Spots [with Ann Tenbrunsel], Princeton University Press, 2011) and over 200 research articles and chapters. He is a member of the editorial boards of the American Behavioral Scientist, Journal of Management and Governance, Mind and Society, Negotiations and Conflict Management Research, Psychological and Personality Science, and The Journal of Behavioral Finance. Also, he is a member of the international advisory board of the Negotiation Journal.

From 2002-2008, Max was consistently named one of the top 40 authors, speakers, and teachers of management by Executive Excellence. He was 'Teacher of the Year' by the Executive Masters Program of the Kellogg School. In 2003, Max received the Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in Mentoring Award from Harvard University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. In 2006, Max received an honorary doctorate from the University of London (London Business School), the Kulp-Wright Book Award from the American Risk and Insurance Association for Predictable Surprises (with Michael Watkins), and the Life Achievement Award from the Aspen Institute's Business and Society Program. In 2008, Max was named as Ethisphere's 100 Most Influential in Business Ethics, was named one of Daily Kos' Heroes from the Bush Era for going public about how the Bush Administration corrupted the RICO Tobacco trial, (with Deepak Malhotra) received the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR) Outstanding Book Award for Negotiation Genius, and received the Distinguished Educator Award from the Academy of Management.

In 2009, Max won both the Wyss Award for doctoral student mentoring and the Williams Award for teaching excellence at the Harvard Business School.   His former doctoral students have accepted positions at leading business schools throughout the United States, including the Kellogg School at Northwestern, the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, the Fuqua School at Duke, the Johnson School at Cornell, Carnegie-Mellon University, Stanford University, the University of Chicago, Notre Dame, Columbia, and the Harvard Business School.

Past Cunningham Visitors

Amy Edmonson, 2011

"Teaming: How the learning organization works"

This talk presents the core ideas from my forthcoming book, Teaming: How organizations learn, innovate and compete in the knowledge economy, which reviews and translates for practice a body of research investigating interpersonal dynamics that affect organizational learning. Teaming is the dynamic activity through which interdependent work is carried out; the term puts the emphasis on action – on how work unfolds – rather than on teams as bounded entities. I suggest that an organization’s ability to learn—to improve organizational actions through better knowledge and understanding—is shaped by the actions and interactions of individuals in fluid team-based arrangements. By making appropriate changes in how work is done (driven by both group and organizational goals), teaming helps an organization maintain or enhance its effectiveness in a changing world. This perspective on organizational learning emerged via research in settings ranging from the front lines of health care delivery to the Space Shuttle program at NASA to the management boardroom. It emphasizes the debilitating effects of interpersonal fear and examines the role of leadership in counteracting these effects.

Peter Salovey, 2010

Faculty, alumni, staff, graduate and undergraduate students and members of the Kingston community participated in the Inaugural QSB Cunningham Visit in September.

QSB Cunningham Visitor, Peter Salovey, (Provost at Yale University and Chris Argyris Professor of Psychology) created and introduced the concept of emotional intelligence in 1990 in a paper with John D. Mayer. The impact of EI is apparent in terms of academic research (i.e., there is now a large literature on a concept that was introduced just 20 years ago) and teaching (e.g., some business schools have added the training of emotional competencies into their curriculums), and in the managerial practice of many organizations (e.g., several companies now incorporate EI into employee development programs). The general public is also interested in EI, and their interest appears to be growing.

During his visit, Dr. Salovey met with individuals and small groups and presented a Research Seminar on Message Framing To Encourage Healthy Behaviour and a Public Lecture on Emotional Intelligence. Interest extended well beyond the School of Business, with enthusiastic numbers in attendance from Policy Studies, Kinesiology, Psychology, Health Counselling and other departments across campus.

The Douglas G. Cunningham Visitorship Endowment Fund was established through a pledge commitment by Royal Trust, to enable Queen’s University to bring distinguished speakers to campus each year from the field of applied social sciences, with emphasis on law, business and industrial relations.

We expect that the Queen’s Community and beyond will watch for this annual QSB event in the future.