“Emphasizing a “calculative mindset” encourages people to act more selfishly and less ethically when making decisions.

People are often naturally suspicious of leaders who display an overreliance on number crunching: they are considered bean counters who lack people skills; their decisions are seen as penny-wise and pound-foolish. To describe someone as “calculating” is almost never a compliment. So why do business schools emphasize an almost purely quantitative approach to leadership and decision making? Moreover, is there empirical evidence to support the intuition that a calculating person is more likely to act selfishly or unethically?”

For the full article, see http://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/are_bean_counters_more_selfish. July 7, 2014 by John Pavlus. Based on the research of Long Wang, Chen-Bo Zhong and J. Keith Murnighan.

To ponder:

In addition to finance, how else do you measure and discuss your site and facilities?