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  • All HBS Web  (104)
    • People  (1)
    • News  (26)
    • Research  (47)
  • Faculty Publications  (24)

Show Results For

  • All HBS Web  (104)
    • People  (1)
    • News  (26)
    • Research  (47)
  • Faculty Publications  (24)
Page 1 of 104 Results →
  • 03 Dec 2010
  • News

When honesty isn't always the best policy

  • Web

2.3.8 Honesty | MBA

2.3.8 Honesty HBS expects that all students will be honest and forthcoming in their dealings with the members of this community. Further, HBS expects that students will answer truthfully questions put to them by an officer of the... View Details
  • January 2023 (Revised November 2023)
  • Technical Note

Ethical Analysis: Honesty and Self-Interest

By: Nien-hê Hsieh and Christopher Diak
Information asymmetry is pervasive in business and can often confer great advantage. This note distinguishes forms of deceptive behavior in the face of information asymmetry and aims to help students analyze their impermissibility. View Details
Keywords: Ethics; Analysis; Balance and Stability
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Hsieh, Nien-hê, and Christopher Diak. "Ethical Analysis: Honesty and Self-Interest." Harvard Business School Technical Note 323-067, January 2023. (Revised November 2023.)
  • 2008
  • Chapter

Corporate Honesty and Business Education: A Behavioral Model

By: Rakesh Khurana and Herbert Gintis
Since the mid-1970s neoclassical economic theory has dominated business school thinking and teaching in dealing with the nature of human motivation. However valuable in understanding competitive product and financial markets, neoclassical economic theory employs an... View Details
Keywords: Business Education; Ethics; Managerial Roles; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Organizational Culture; Business and Shareholder Relations; Mathematical Methods; Behavior
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Khurana, Rakesh, and Herbert Gintis. "Corporate Honesty and Business Education: A Behavioral Model." In Moral Markets: The Critical Role of Values in the Economy, edited by Paul J. Zak. Princeton University Press, 2008.
  • September–October 1990
  • Article

Why Be Honest If Honesty Doesn't Pay?

By: A. V. Bhide and H. H. Stevenson
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Bhide, A. V., and H. H. Stevenson. "Why Be Honest If Honesty Doesn't Pay?" Harvard Business Review 68, no. 5 (September–October 1990): 121–129.
  • November 2010
  • Article

People Often Trust Eloquence More Than Honesty

By: Todd Rogers and Michael I. Norton
This article presents a dual interview based on a research study we conducted. Our study found that an artful dodger of questions was generally considered more likable than a person who answered the same questions directly but with less eloquence. We comment on the... View Details
Keywords: Research; Social Psychology; Communication; Perception; Business or Company Management; Government and Politics
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Rogers, Todd, and Michael I. Norton. "People Often Trust Eloquence More Than Honesty." Harvard Business Review 88, no. 11 (November 2010): 36–37.
  • August 18, 2022
  • Article

How to Build a Life: Honesty Is Love

By: Arthur C. Brooks
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Brooks, Arthur C. "How to Build a Life: Honesty Is Love." The Atlantic (August 18, 2022).
  • October 2012
  • Article

Honesty Requires Time (and Lack of Justifications)

By: Shaul Shalvi, Ori Eldar and Yoella Bereby-Meyer
Recent research suggests that refraining from cheating in tempting situations requires self-control, which indicates that serving self-interest is an automatic tendency. However, evidence also suggests that people cheat to the extent that they can justify their... View Details
Keywords: Ethics; Cognition and Thinking
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Shalvi, Shaul, Ori Eldar, and Yoella Bereby-Meyer. "Honesty Requires Time (and Lack of Justifications)." Psychological Science 23, no. 10 (October 2012): 1264–1270.
  • February 2023
  • Article

The Effect of Systems of Management Controls on Honesty in Managerial Reporting

By: Aishwarrya Deore, Susanna Gallani and Ranjani Krishnan
While budgetary controls with capital rationing are optimal in theory and widespread in practice, empirical research documents their association with higher employee dishonesty compared to budgetary controls without rationing. In this study, we examine whether... View Details
Keywords: Directing Controls; Misreporting; Mission Statements; Participative Budgeting; Stewardship Theory; Systems Of Management Controls; Capital; Budgets and Budgeting; Mission and Purpose
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Deore, Aishwarrya, Susanna Gallani, and Ranjani Krishnan. "The Effect of Systems of Management Controls on Honesty in Managerial Reporting." Art. 101401. Accounting, Organizations and Society 105 (February 2023).
  • March 18, 2020
  • Article

How Honest Conversations Can Accelerate Corporate Transformation

By: Michael Beer
When CEOs engage a cross section of their key people in an honest conversation about organizational strengths and barriers to the execution of strategic changes required by the changing competitive landscape, transformations are accelerated. The honest conversation... View Details
Keywords: Honesty; Communication; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Transformation; Organizational Culture
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Beer, Michael. "How Honest Conversations Can Accelerate Corporate Transformation." Chief Executive (March 18, 2020).
  • January 22, 2020
  • Article

Making Honest Conversations the Norm

By: Michael Beer
Much admired companies like Boeing and Wells Fargo sacrifice their competitive advantage. Some make huge ethical blunders. As a result, shareholders suffer huge losses in value while employees, customers, and society lose trust and confidence in the institution. Based... View Details
Keywords: Honesty; Interpersonal Communication; Framework; Organizational Culture; Trust; Performance Effectiveness
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Beer, Michael. "Making Honest Conversations the Norm." ChangeThis (blog) (January 22, 2020).
  • 2020
  • Book

Fit to Compete: Why Honest Conversations About Your Company's Capabilities Are the Key to a Winning Strategy

By: Michael Beer
Is Silence Killing Your Strategy?
In his thirty years of working in corporations, Harvard Business School professor Michael Beer has witnessed firsthand how organizational silence derails strategic objectives. When employees can't speak truth to power, senior... View Details
Keywords: Honesty; Communication; Organizational Culture; Trust; Strategy; Performance Effectiveness
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Beer, Michael. Fit to Compete: Why Honest Conversations About Your Company's Capabilities Are the Key to a Winning Strategy. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2020.
  • December 2021
  • Case

Slice Labs: Creating a Fraud-free Online Insurance Platform

By: Amit Goldenberg, Max Bazerman and Ruth Page
"Slice Labs: Creating a Fraud-Free Online Insurance Platform" engages students with the challenge of how to influence other parties to not engage in fraud in the context of digital insurance. The case is centered around Slice, a digital insurance company that was... View Details
Keywords: Technology; Insurance; Digitization; Honesty; Negotiation; Fraud; Ethics; Negotiation Process; Negotiation Tactics; Negotiation Types; Social Psychology; Conflict and Resolution; Trust; Fairness; Moral Sensibility; Values and Beliefs; Crime and Corruption; Insurance Industry; Technology Industry; United States; Canada
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Goldenberg, Amit, Max Bazerman, and Ruth Page. "Slice Labs: Creating a Fraud-free Online Insurance Platform." Harvard Business School Multimedia/Video Case 921-712, December 2021.
  • June 18, 2022
  • Article

In Defense of Online Anonymity

By: Michael Luca
Lack of transparency on the internet may help fuel toxic dialogue, but it also encourages honest feedback and protects people against discrimination View Details
Keywords: Transparency; Anonymity; Honesty; Social Media; Prejudice and Bias
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Luca, Michael. "In Defense of Online Anonymity." Wall Street Journal (June 18, 2022).
  • Article

Signing at the Beginning vs at the End Does Not Decrease Dishonesty

By: Ariella S. Kristal, A.V. Whillans, Max Bazerman, Francesca Gino, Lisa Shu, Nina Mazar and Dan Ariely
Honest reporting is essential for society to function well. However, people frequently lie when asked to provide information, such as misrepresenting their income to save money on taxes. A landmark finding published in PNAS (Shu, Mazar, Gino, Ariely, and Bazerman,... View Details
Keywords: Morality; Nudge; Policy-making; Replication; Honesty; Moral Sensibility; Behavior; Policy
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Kristal, Ariella S., A.V. Whillans, Max Bazerman, Francesca Gino, Lisa Shu, Nina Mazar, and Dan Ariely. "Signing at the Beginning vs at the End Does Not Decrease Dishonesty." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117, no. 13 (March 31, 2020): 7103–7107.
  • 2012
  • Article

Signing at the Beginning Makes Ethics Salient and Decreases Dishonest Self-reports in Comparison to Signing at the End

By: L. Shu, N. Mazar, F. Gino, D. Ariely and M. Bazerman
Many written forms required by businesses and governments rely on honest reporting. Proof of honest intent is typically provided through signature at the end of the document, e.g., tax returns or insurance policy forms. Still, people sometimes cheat to advance their... View Details
Keywords: Nudge; Morality; Honesty; Self-report; Policy-making; Ethics; Corporate Disclosure; Reports; Policy
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Shu, L., N. Mazar, F. Gino, D. Ariely, and M. Bazerman. "Signing at the Beginning Makes Ethics Salient and Decreases Dishonest Self-reports in Comparison to Signing at the End." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109, no. 38 (September 18, 2012): 15197–15200.
  • January 2014
  • Article

Self-reported Ethical Risk Taking Tendencies Predict Actual Dishonesty

By: Liora Zimerman, Shaul Shalvi and Yoella Bereby-Meyer
Are people honest about the extent to which they engage in unethical behaviors? We report an experiment examining the relation between self-reported risky unethical tendencies and actual dishonest behavior. Participants’ self-reported risk taking tendencies were... View Details
Keywords: DOSPERT; Risk Taking; Honesty; Lying; Dishonesty; Unethical Behavior; Moral Sensibility; Cognition and Thinking
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Zimerman, Liora, Shaul Shalvi, and Yoella Bereby-Meyer. "Self-reported Ethical Risk Taking Tendencies Predict Actual Dishonesty." Judgment and Decision Making 9, no. 1 (January 2014): 58–64.
  • February 2025
  • Supplement

Slice Labs: Creating a Fraud-Free Online Insurance Platform (B)

By: Amit Goldenberg, Max Bazerman and Ruth Page
Keywords: Technology; Insurance; Digitization; Honesty; Trust; Negotiation; Fraud; Ethics; Negotiation Process; Negotiation Tactics; Negotiation Types; Social Psychology
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Goldenberg, Amit, Max Bazerman, and Ruth Page. "Slice Labs: Creating a Fraud-Free Online Insurance Platform (B)." Harvard Business School Multimedia/Video Supplement 925-701, February 2025.
  • May 2020
  • Article

To Be or Not to Be Your Authentic Self? Catering to Others' Expectations and Interests Hinders Performance

By: Francesca Gino, Ovul Sezer and Laura Huang
When approaching interpersonal first meetings (e.g., job interviews), people often cater to the target’s interests and expectations to make a good impression and secure a positive outcome such as being offered the job (pilot study). This strategy is distinct from other... View Details
Keywords: Authenticity; Catering; Honesty; Selection; Impression Management; Interpersonal Communication; Behavior; Performance
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Gino, Francesca, Ovul Sezer, and Laura Huang. "To Be or Not to Be Your Authentic Self? Catering to Others' Expectations and Interests Hinders Performance." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 158 (May 2020): 83–100.
  • 02 Jun 2011
  • Research & Ideas

Signing at the Top: The Key to Preventing Tax Fraud?

pledge of honesty is a way of effectively linking identity to morality." Testing Honesty The research team conducted a series of experiments in which participants could benefit financially from dishonest... View Details
Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Accounting
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