What you say and how you say it

Oct. 15, 2012 - PRLog -- Gabrielle Adams, Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School and Benoît Monin of Stanford University are co –researchers in experiments that focus on power of linguistic variation. The research was led by Christopher Bryan of University of California, San Diego.

Dr. Adams explained that “People were less likely to cheat when we referred to the behaviour as 'being a cheater' rather than 'cheating.' This is because the term 'cheater' is relevant to the person's identity, and has implications for the kind of person they would be if they were to cheat. This research is exciting because it suggests that a very simple way leaders might curb unethical behaviour is with subtle linguistic cues that highlight the implications that the behaviour might have for a person's identity.”

The research exhibits that with good management training, managers can promote ethical behaviour in the work place by varying the language or usage of words when sending encouraging and motivational messages to employees. The world of business can be highly impacted if linguistic technicalities can be adjusted to get a better suited result for problems relating to unethical behaviour in the work place.

The research title, 'when cheating would make you a cheater: Implicating the Self Prevents Unethical Behaviour' used three different experiments and two different models to establish the use of the word Cheater or Cheating,  wherein one relates to a persons’ identity and the other to the act of it, respectively. The experiments performed consisted of participants being given a chance to claim money that was not entitled to them at the expense of the researcher. Some of the participants were given instructions wherein the usage of the term cheating implicated them as cheater, i.e. associating their identity with the word; while some were instructed in a language that pinpointed on the act of cheating.

Subsequent to the experiments, the research showed that participant who weren’t tagged as ‘cheater’ claimed a larger sum of money as compared to their counterpart’s assigned ‘cheater’, who appeared to, not cheat at all. This highlights the important of effective communication and how misinterpreted information could alter people’s behaviour.

With essential Management training skills, managers can improve upon unethical behaviour within the work force. Delivering messages with appropriate linguistic tools, a manager can focus on his/her team to be certain kind of persons rather than exhibit certain type of behaviour.

For more information, please visit: http://www.london.edu/programmes/executiveeducation/finan...