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  • June 29, 2022
  • Other Article

Strategic Complexity? Using Experiments to Understand and Overcome Obfuscation

By: Michael Luca, Ginger Zhe Jin and Daniel Martin
Credit card companies must decide what product features to disclose to consumers, such as payment schedules, penalties, and fees--and also whether to present them clearly or bury them in the fine print. Firms face similar choices in settings ranging from privacy... View Details
Keywords: Obfuscation; Credit Cards; Strategic Incentives; Complexity; Agreements and Arrangements; Customers; Consumer Behavior; Financial Services Industry
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  • Article

The Deception Spiral: Corporate Obfuscation Leads to Perceptions of Immorality and Cheating Behavior

By: D.M. Markowitz, M. Kouchaki, J.T. Hancock and F. Gino
In four studies, we evaluated how corporate misconduct relates to language patterns, perceptions of immorality, and unethical behavior. First, we analyzed nearly 190 codes of conduct from S&P 500 manufacturing companies and observed that corporations with ethics... View Details
Keywords: Obfuscation; Corporate Unethicality; Deception; Deception Spiral; Organizations; Values and Beliefs; Ethics; Perception; Behavior
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  • May 31, 2016
  • Article

Memories of Unethical Actions Become Obfuscated over Time

By: Maryam Kouchaki and Francesca Gino
Despite our optimistic belief that we would behave honestly when facing the temptation to act unethically, we often cross ethical boundaries. This paper explores one possibility for why people engage in unethical behavior over time by suggesting that memory for their... View Details
Keywords: Behavior; Ethics; Cognition and Thinking
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  • 2014
  • Working Paper

Linguistic Complexity in Firm Disclosures: Obfuscation or Information?

By: Brian J. Bushee, Ian D. Gow and Daniel Taylor
Prior research argues that the linguistic complexity of a firm’s disclosures reflects managerial obfuscation. However, complex language can be used either to obfuscate or to convey information, with the effect likely depending on the incentives of the source. We... View Details
Keywords: Communication; Financial Reporting
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  • May 2022
  • Article

Complex Disclosure

By: Ginger Zhe Jin, Michael Luca and Daniel Martin
We present evidence that unnecessarily complex disclosure can result from strategic incentives to shroud information. In our lab experiment, senders are required to report their private information truthfully, but can choose how complex to make their reports. We find... View Details
Keywords: Disclosure; Experiments; Naiveté; Overconfidence; Corporate Disclosure; Policy; Information; Complexity; Strategy; Consumer Behavior
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  • 2023
  • Working Paper

Should Human Capital Development Programs Be Voluntary or Mandatory? Evidence from a Field Experiment

By: Jason Sandvik, Richard Saouma, Nathan Seegert and Christopher Stanton
In a field experiment, we find large differences in productivity treatment effects between voluntary and mandatory workplace mentorship programs. A significant portion of this difference is due to the best employees opting into the program when it is voluntary and... View Details
Keywords: Mentoring; Mentorship Programs; Randomized Controlled Trial; Employees; Relationships; Programs; Performance
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  • Forthcoming
  • Article

Should Human Capital Development Programs Be Voluntary or Mandatory? Evidence from a Field Experiment

By: Jason Sandvik, Richard Saouma, Nathan Seegert and Christopher Stanton
In a field experiment, we find large differences in productivity treatment effects between voluntary and mandatory workplace mentorship programs. A significant portion of this difference is due to the best employees opting into the program when it is voluntary and... View Details
Keywords: Mentoring; Mentorship Programs; Randomized Controlled Trial; Performance Productivity; Employees; Talent and Talent Management; Programs
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  • Spring 2018
  • Article

The ‘Moral Effect’ of Legalized Lawlessness:: Violence in Britain’s Twentieth Century Empire

By: Caroline M. Elkins
From 1930s Palestine to Kenya in the years following World War II, systematized violence shaped and defined much of Britain’s twentieth-century empire. Liberal authoritarianism, and with it the “moral effect” that coercion had upon colonial subjects, gave rise to the... View Details
Keywords: Colonialism; Authoritarianism; Violence; History; Great Britain
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  • 2010
  • Book

Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down

By: John P. Kotter and Lorne A. Whitehead
You've got a good idea. You know it could make a crucial difference for you, your organization, your community. You present it to the group but get confounding questions, inane comments, and verbal bullets in return. Before you know what's happened, your idea is dead,... View Details
Keywords: Communication Intention and Meaning; Cost vs Benefits; Problems and Challenges; Interests; Value
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  • Forthcoming
  • Article

Confronting the Limits of Symbolic Actions: How Entrepreneurs Narrow the Presentation-Performance Gap

By: Rebecca Karp and Siobhan O'Mahony
Entrepreneurs often skillfully leverage symbolic actions to manage impressions and gain acceptance for their innovations. Impression management can generate interest, but also heighten expectations beyond an innovation’s capabilities, creating a gap between... View Details
Keywords: Digital Innovation; Integration Strategy; Impression Management; Innovation Strategy; Entrepreneurship; Health Industry; Technology Industry
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  • 18 Sep 2019
  • Op-Ed

WeWork—The IPO That Shouldn’t?

made a better case for the company by not obfuscating their financials are highlighted below. In short, WeWork took advantage of the JOBS Act to present their financials in such a way that, in aggregate, could be considered misleading. In... View Details
Keywords: by Nori Gerardo Lietz; Financial Services; Real Estate
  • 03 May 2016
  • First Look

First Look, May 3, 2016

memory for their past unethical actions is impaired. We propose that after engaging in unethical behavior, individuals’ memory of their actions becomes more obfuscated over time due to the psychological distress and discomfort such... View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
  • 01 Aug 2008
  • What Do You Think?

Has the Time Come for “Stretch” in Management?

when he said, "Stretch ... allows those with the biggest vision to express it in a tangible way However, in my experience, it is also used in the same way the rack was used." Carl Binder pointed out that "... stretch goals have led mostly to intentional... View Details
Keywords: by Jim Heskett
  • 24 Sep 2019
  • Research & Ideas

Do National Security Secrets Hold Back National Innovation?

research is unlikely to influence managers’ day-to-day decisions about whether to apply for patents. Indeed, many companies already attempt to have it both ways, as patent attorneys can use obfuscating language in patent applications in... View Details
Keywords: by Kristen Senz
  • Web

5.1 Information Technology | MBA

defaming, or otherwise contributes to a hostile environment, the creation or use of an alias or any other mechanism to misrepresent or obfuscate one’s identity, or the impersonation of another user. HBS reserves the right to take any... View Details
  • 18 Jul 2005
  • Research & Ideas

Time to Rethink the Corporate Tax System?

tax avoidance is good for shareholders is the fact that tax avoidance opportunities require obfuscation and, consequently, open the door to managerial opportunism. Indeed, several high-profile cases of managerial opportunism including... View Details
Keywords: by Ann Cullen
  • 13 Oct 2010
  • First Look

First Look: October 13, 2010

this way, maintain John Kotter and Lorne Whitehead. In Buy-In, they reveal how to win the support your idea needs to deliver valuable results. The key? Understand the generic attack strategies that naysayers and obfuscators deploy time... View Details
Keywords: Sean Silverthorne
  • 30 Oct 2018
  • First Look

New Research and Ideas, October 30, 2018

information. We implement an experiment where senders are required to report their private information truthfully but can choose how complex to make their reports. We find that senders use complex disclosure more than half the time. Most of this View Details
Keywords: Dina Gerdeman
  • 27 Sep 2004
  • Research & Ideas

How Leaders Build Winning Streaks

obfuscation or cover-ups, enables facts to be squarely faced and promises to be based on reality. "Humiliation-free zones" support objective discussion of strengths and weaknesses without fear of embarrassment. Winning teams are... View Details
Keywords: by Rosabeth Moss Kanter
  • 06 Jul 2009
  • Research & Ideas

Conducting Layoffs: ’Necessary Evils’ at Work

Novices sometimes veer to one extreme or the other, delivering the hard news without the compassion, perhaps to demonstrate their toughness or ability to handle the task, or succumbing to a burst of sympathy that causes them to cushion and View Details
Keywords: by Martha Lagace