Kept and Broken Promises

Last week, BloombergBusinessweek published, "Nobody Cares How Awesome You Are at Your Job" (Suddath, 2014), a summary of an academic study by Ayelet Gneezy (UCAL) and Nicholas Epley (University of Chicago, my alma mater). Don't take that headline to mean that your efforts are worthless or that you can spend the next week playing Candy Crush or updating Facebook.

The original study, "Worth Keeping but Not Exceeding: Assymetrical Consequences of Keeping versus Breaking Promises" (Gneezy & Epley, 2014) tracks the impact of the effort made in the fulfillment of commitments made to others. Their work suggests that, if you fail to follow through with a promise, the recipient of that promise will view your effort negatively, suspect you were insincere in making a promise, and be unhappy with the situation. If you meet a promise with exceptional effort, it is virtually the same as keeping a promise without making that effort.

Non-Profit Board Member Agreements

Photograph by WoodleyWonderworks available at
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wwworks/9111274504/

Many civic minded individuals find themselves serving on one or more boards of non-profit organizations. Unlike corporate board positions which are paid, non-profit board members typically serve on a volunteer basis. When agreeing to serve, incoming board members usually receive a written or verbal explanation of responsibilities and expectations. Although most board members are passionate about the mission of the organization and are generous with their time and energy, occasionally expectations are unclear or, for personal reasons, board members are unable to fulfill their responsibilities. In this case, coaching these members can be delicate.

OB on Pinterest

Last Fall (2013), I didn't teach Organizational Behavior, so most of my attention was focused on Business Ethics. However, I continually collect information about teaching Organizational Behavior on Pinterest. My Teaching - OB board includes links to articles, video clips, infographics, books, and other resources relevant to an OB course.