The Consequences of Creative and Calculative Mindsets
Time, Date, Venue
14 March 2011, Monday 15.15-16.30
University College London
1st floor Exec-ed
room, Engineering Front Building
("Malet place" in Google maps)
Abstract
My presentation will combine two research papers to
demonstrate how and why two particularly important organizational skills,
creativity and calculativeness, can have unintended consequences. The first
part of my presentation, based on two experiments from my dissertation, shows
how creativity can lead to highly ingenious but ethically questionable
decisions. These studies are based on the idea that ethical decision making,
which is often influenced by intrinsic ethical values (Etzioni, 1988) and moral
rules (Kant, 1785; Aquinas, 1947; Mabbott, 1953; Turiel, 1983), is consistent
with convergent thinking but creativity is squarely rooted in cognitive
flexibility and divergent thinking (Guilford, 1950; Getzels & Jackson,
1962; Amabile, 1983; Runco, 2002). The potential conflict between convergent
and divergent thinking suggests that creativity can lead to a relaxation of
ethical standards, especially when self interest is activated. Thus, I present
two experiments that first activated a creative mindset and then observed that,
in two markedly different contexts, individuals creatively cheated by taking
advantage of task-systemic loopholes, a practice that is clearly creative but
of questionable ethics.
The second part of my talk will be based on our recent research on the
potentially negative consequences of calculative rationality (Wang &
Murnighan, 2010). The paper suggests that engaging in numerical or quantitative
analyses and calculations - critical elements of rational analysis (March,
1978) - creates a calculative mindset that can blunt the ability to recognize a
decision’s social consequences. For instance, when managers focus only on a
firm’s financial performance and profit maximization, they may overlook or
underemphasize the social effects of their decisions (e.g. the welfare of their
employees) (Rubinstein, 2006). Thus, in five experiments, we stimulated a
calculative mindset in people and observed its effects on their moral and
social decisions. The results indicate that, after performing a complex
calculation task (or many simple ones), people kept significantly more money
for themselves and acted more deceitfully in a series of different behavioral
games. The effect was weaker, but still significant when the calculation was
non-monetary. A subtle manipulation of the social aspects of their decisions,
however, erased these effects.
Taken together, these two programs of research suggest that managers’ mindsets
(Gollwitzer, 1990; 1996) are critically important for understanding their
decision processes, particularly those that address moral or ethical issues. In
particular, although creativity and calculativeness are critical organizational
skills, activating creative and calculative mindsets can lead to unintended
unethical action. On the one hand, because creativity typically promotes
divergent and unconventional thinking (Guilford, 1956; 1963; Nemeth, 1997;
Schuldberg, 1997; Runco, 2007), creative individuals may be more inclined to
think outside of the box of ethical constraints, resulting in highly creative
but less ethical decisions like taking advantage of loopholes. On the other
hand, because people with a calculative mindset focus on the numbers more than
on the social aspects of their decisions, failing to recognize the implications
of calculativeness (Williamson, 1993) can lead to individualistic and deceptive
rather than socially-oriented behavior. These findings suggest that
organizations might do well to pay more attention to their stimulation of
creative and calculative mindsets, particularly prior to moral judgments and
decisions.
