The Importance of Telling Employees "Don't Do That"

The Importance of Telling Employees "Don't Do That":  In a recent study, HBS professors Francesca Gino and Joshua D. Margolis look at two ways that companies can encourage ethical behavior among employees: the promotion of good deeds or the prevention of bad deeds. They find that employees tend to act more ethically when focused on what not to do. But can be problematic in firms where success is commonly framed in terms of advancement of positive outcomes rather than prevention of bad ones. Gino and Margolis discuss their research in this article by Carmen Nobel, which first appeared on the HBS Working Knowledge website.