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Understanding self-serving behavior in leaders
In a new research paper, Melissa Williams, assistant professor of organization & management, developed a framework to better understand when and why leaders use their power for personal gain. She discovered that a variety of traits, characteristics, and values, such as feeling less of a sense of guilt, made leaders more likely to exhibit self-interested behaviors. Individuals who were more narcissistic, less humble and honest, and generally less agreeable also had an increased chance of abusing their power. Leaders with an individualistic and competitive streak as well as those with a lower sense of morality were also more likely to act on self-interest. Threats to power especially increased self-serving behavior for those with a propensity for it. Williams added that “because positions of leadership are desirable and hedonically pleasurable, leaders facing threats to their power will prioritize self-interested actions that secure their own power over behaviors that serve shared goals.” Interestingly, for the individuals who did not have self-interested traits and values, power actually decreased the likelihood that they would become self-interested. Source:
The brain, human behavior, and accounting
Accounting is essential to market economies, setting up what is basically a moral code for financial transactions. Drawing from new and related research, Gregory B. Waymire, Asa Griggs Candler professor of accounting, argues that accounting does have a moral basis because it is designed to encourage and promote ethical behavior. To support the point, he used existing functional MRI research showing how the brain responds to accounting information. Studies show a clear link between earnings news and increased brain activity, as well as accounting information and changes in human behavior. Waymire notes that accounting has the ability to create trust in economic exchange and establishes a way to benefit from it. Additional neuroscience research will play a critical role in furthering our understanding of the relationship between accounting and human behavior. The research is particularly salient for auditors as they work to improve investor trust. Source:
Speculation and its impact on trading volume
Financial researchers have long wondered exactly which economic forces cause variation in asset prices and returns. For instance, traders will often target financial instruments due to their volatile and highly liquid nature, such as US treasury bonds. This speculative behavior takes advantage of the frequent price movements of the product. But the influence of that behavior remains the subject of debate. Francisco Barillas, assistant professor of finance, and Kristoffer Nimark (Cornell U) take a deep dive into the issue by investigating the impact of speculative trading activity on the variation of long maturity US bond yields. For their analysis, Barillas and Nimark use public information to develop a rational model to track “informed traders that take on speculative positions to exploit what they perceive to be inaccurate market expectations about future bond prices.” They argue that their research takes a more “suitable approach for empirical work” by factoring in how traders exploit private information that other traders may not have. The authors note that bond prices alone are not enough information for predicting bond returns. The two write, “If traders have access to different information, this price may differ from what an individual trader would be willing to pay for the bond if he had to hold it until maturity.” Ultimately, they find that this speculation remains a key driver of trading volume, accounting for a “substantial fraction of the variation in historical US bond yields along with the usual analysis of estimating returns based on bond prices.” Source:
Securitized loan modification and loan performance
After the collapse of the housing market, the wave of foreclosures in the US changed the economic landscape of many neighborhoods across the country. Some academics and policymakers have argued that the renegotiation of those loans was a much better alternative than foreclosure and that incentives should have been offered to financial institutions to encourage it. However, little research exists to understand the performance of loans that were modified. Gonzalo Maturana, assistant professor of finance, takes a close look at loan modifications made early in the recent housing crisis to better understand the value of offering incentives to modify securitized non-agency loans. According to Maturana, researchers contend that the small number of loan modifications added to the number of foreclosures during the subprime crisis. His analysis consisted of slightly more than 835,000 non-agency securitized loans that became delinquent between August 2007 and February 2009. Maturana found that loan “modification reduces loan losses by 35.8% relative to the average loss, which suggests that the marginal benefit of modification likely exceeded the marginal cost.” Additionally, modifications resulted in fewer liquidations. He also found that modifications were particularly useful “in preventing future loan losses in times of large increases in delinquencies when servicers are more likely to be working at full capacity.” Source:
Relational signaling and gift giving
Prior research indicates that gift givers are motivated by competing goals. Often, they will simply select an item of the recipient’s choosing. However, gift givers are also likely to select an item on their own to help show knowledge of the recipient and further define and maintain a personal connection. Morgan Ward, assistant professor of marketing, and coauthor Susan Broniarczyk (U Texas) take the research a step further by analyzing how the closeness of a relationship further impacts the gift-giving decision when a gift registry is readily available. The duo employed five separate studies with human subjects presented with various gift-giving scenarios. The paper notes, “We find that despite their stated primary intention to please recipients, close (vs. distant) givers ultimately are more likely to ignore recipients’ explicit registry preferences in favor of freely chosen gifts.” Ward and Broniarczyk conclude that divergence from the registry was not necessarily about finding a better gift. Instead, it occurred only when givers specifically received attribution for their selection. The closeness of the personal connection resulted in a “perceptual distortion of the gift options in favor of relational-signaling gifts.” Distant givers were much more likely to pick an item from the registry, selecting gifts closely aligned with recipients’ preferences. Source:
Unconventional Tech Conference Brings International Audience to UMW
Join us July 30 – August 3! Educators from Canada to Cairo, the UK and across the U.S. will attend the University of Mary Washington’s Digital Pedagogy Lab. Dynamic keynote speakers like NPR’s lead education blogger, Anya Kamenetz, and Columbia University’s Jade E. Davis will ask participants to re-imagine technology’s role in higher education, finding the best ways to teach with and about it. Hosted by UMW’s trend-setting Division of Teaching and Learning Technologies (think ground-breaking initiatives like Domain of One's Own), DPL delves deep into digital pedagogy, covering everything from cultural humility to “mad genius” storytelling. We’re also on Twitter – so follow along and join in on the conversation - @DigPedLab and #digped. Source:
Four Traps to Avoid When an Acquirer Comes Calling
If you are keen to sell your business and are hoping to entice buyers to offer up maximum value for your company – there are a few tips to know and traps to avoid before getting started. Once word gets out, you’ll need to be prepared and ready to impress. Recently, Ed Reilly, Managing Partner and co-founder of Freelandt Caldwell Reilly LLP published a column where he taps into his years of experience in transactions and acquisitions to offer up some sage advice to anyone who may be considering selling their business. Please see the attached article and give it a read. To contact Ed directly, simply click on his icon to arrange an appointment regarding this topic. Source:
Liberals' best hope for a new swing vote is... John Roberts?
As Brett Kavanaugh, 53, readies himself for a series of heated Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, many have questioned who will take up his mentor’s mantle on the Supreme Court. For three decades Justice Anthony Kennedy was arguably the most powerful figure in Washington, D.C. Famed for his ability to vote across party lines. Kennedy, who announced his retirement in June, helped shape some of the biggest landmark decisions of the past decade—most notably on the issue of same-sex marriage and LGBTQ rights. As a replacement, Kavanaugh is unlikely to be as magnanimous with his votes. But will that alter the Court’s direction? Only a little, said Dr. Martha Ginn Ginn, assistant dean of the Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences and associate professor of political science, said Kennedy’s most likely “successor” is already a fixture of the Court: Chief Justice, and occasional swing voter, John Roberts. “Roberts will likely become the Court’s ‘swing vote’ now that Kennedy’s out,” Ginn said. “While Roberts may move a little more to the center as result, the overall shift will be more conservative.” A scholar of constitutional law and the Supreme Court, Ginn said the Court’s rightward movement won’t be quite as monumental as pundits have proposed. After all, Kennedy’s votes weren’t always left-leaning. In his last term, he sided with his liberal colleagues not once. “I think one point that is getting lost is that Kennedy was, for the most part, a conservative and voted accordingly,” she said. “There were certain issues where he was more likely to join the liberal wing, most prominently LGBTQ rights, but he voted with the conservative justices the majority of the time.” Kennedy’s retirement will certainly shift the Court toward the right, Ginn added, but “not to the same degree as if Ruth Bader Ginsburg retired or died in office.” Meanwhile, as the non-chaos of a Kavanaugh confirmation plays out, Roberts stands to gain as the Court’s new wildcard. Ginn said Roberts’ latest ruling, that law enforcement agencies must obtain warrants to use cell tower data, is a good indication of how he’ll vote as part of a post-Kennedy Court. “I think the role of Chief Justice Roberts becomes even more significant in a Kennedy-less Court and that hasn’t been given much attention,” she said. “I think both sides are forgetting that Roberts is a bit of wild card too when it comes to voting on very consequential cases. The one that comes to mind most Source:
Today, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin met at the presidential palace in Helsinki to discuss the relationship between their respective countries. Prior to the meeting, Trump cited national security concerns and trade as agenda items. Since the start of the meeting, the two presidents have also discussed the tension between the two countries and accused election meddling. At Augusta University, our experts have been following the historic meeting, and made the following observations: • Trump is correct in asserting the importance of having Russia as an ally. • The US is currently facing Russian cyberaggression, so how Trump addresses this issue has immediate concerns. • US posture in Syria is at stake. • It is important to keep this meeting in the context of “America First.” Trump will push messages at the summit that fall in line with his national security interests. What are the implications of this summit for every-day Americans? Will this meeting improve the relationship between the United States and Russia? How will this meeting effect the United States’ relationship with other European allies? There are a lot of questions to answer – and that’s where our experts can help. Dr. Craig Albert is an expert on American politics and political philosophy. He was recently appointed director of Augusta University’s new Masters of Arts in Intelligence and Security Studies. Dr. Albert has experience with all forms of national and local news organizations and is available to speak to media regarding the Helsinki Summit. Simply click on his icon to arrange an interview. Source:
Who is protecting the children?
As a health care provider and patient advocate, I know that one of the worst things you can do is to radically separate children from their parents and from the rest of their family. The immigration ordeal is beyond tragic. Worse yet, now there is a chance that children may never be united due to faulty record keeping and a rush to keep a deadline. Parents may be forced to leave the country without their children. In my opinion, the detained children are being treated like criminals. Who is consenting for these DNA samples on behalf of the children? It seems to me that collecting DNA from minors without due cause or having legal consent from parents on file would be illegal and violating basic constitutional rights. Collecting DNA to compensate for a faulty record keeping system is not a valid reason to violate the rights of others. Violating policies and protocols in an attempt to rush to meet a deadline is beyond reprehensible. It is obvious that this decision was not well thought out. It is tragic that parents were separated from their children. It is unconscionable that the government would be taking advantage of the vulnerabilities of children and their parents – all for the sake of a political agenda. There exists the possibility that many of these children will grow up never seeing their parents or other family members ever again. Source:
