Table Of ContentFrom Hire to Liar
From Hire
to Liar
The Role of Deception
in the Workplace
DAVID SHULMAN
ILR Press
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First published 2007 by Cornell University Press
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Shulman, David, 1964-
From hire to liar : the role of deception in the workplace/David
Shulman.
p. ern.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-o-8014-4473-9 (cloth: alk. paper)
ISBN-10: o-8014-4473-X (cloth: alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-o-8014-7331-9 (pbk.: alk. paper)
ISBN-10: o-8014-7331-4 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Business ethics. 2. Organizational behavior.
3· Deception. 4· Work ethic. 5· Private investigators. I. Title.
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I noticed that the client company had completely lost its ad-
vantage in two regions of the country where last year it had
showed a strong advantage. I asked my boss, "How should I
update this?" to include in a report for the client. My boss
said, "Leave it out:'
Entry-level worker at a market research firm
I'd play solitaire and have my hand on the Alt-Tab key so
that I could click over to the spreadsheets if someone
walked by.
Intern at a financial services firm
My real goal at work is to do as little work as possible while
getting paid as much as possible. That's it, and I don't feel
bad about it at all.
Computer software consultant
She said, "Just fake the signatures;' and then paused and said,
"unless you're uncomfortable with that." She meant, "Just do
it-what's the big deal? Don't bother me about it or you'll
regret it."
Administrative assistant
A major sales producer is being recruited. Most managers
want to hire her, but a major decision maker doesn't want
to hire her because he doesn't think she's pretty enough ....
He'll mask it ... not cut her a good deal.
Manager at a large insurance corporation
If bullshit was music, I'd be the philharmonic.
Private detective
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: Is Dishonesty the Real Policy?
1
I Private Detectives and Deception as Official Work 17
l Building Believable Lies 37
l Justifying Work-Related Deceptions 54
4 The Shadow World of Unofficial Deception 73
5 Subterranean Education and Training
82
6 Deception as Social Currency 1oo
7 Goofing Off and Getting Along
132
8 The Everyday Ethics of Workplace Lies 144
9 Appreciating Deception in Thinking
about Organizations 156
Appendix: Research Design 175
Notes 191
References 197
Index 209
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My first thanks go to my respondents, who generously shared
their insights and experiences with me.
I have many friends and peers to thank for their advice, encouragement,
readings, and suggestions during various stages of this book's earliest de-
velopment. Thanks to Amy Binder, Beth Clifford, Alan Dahl, Mark Ellis,
Joanne Engelhart, Brian Gran, Lisa Gurr, Lorraine Hanson, Judy Levine,
Mary Lopez, John Massad, David Pellow, Lisa Staffen, Mitchell Stevens,
Adam Weinberg, and Chris Wellin.
At Northwestern University, Ron Breautigam and Josef Barton were
supportive administrators in the Business Institutions Program. I also owe
a special thanks to Lucy Millman for her support, advice, and constant
encouragement. Bernie Beck and Bob Nelson supported early inroads into
this research and offered valuable suggestions. Allan Schnaiberg, with his
big ear and big heart, offered constant encouragement and advice on how
to tighten analytic points and expand ideas. Wendy Espeland was an in-
valuable source of advice on more issues than I can count. Thanks also to
Mark Granovetter and Bruce Carruthers for advice and support.
Charles Ragin bolstered my confidence that this work pursued worth-
while ideas. If just a little of his sociological imagination, intellectual open-
mindedness, and sense of intellectual curiosity rubbed off on me, I'd be a
lucky man.
Carol Heimer and Art Stinchcombe offered criticisms that had the an-
noying quality of being absolutely dead-on right. Their criticisms and en-
X ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
couragement were invaluable. I am deeply grateful for the chance to learn
from them.
I thank Peter and Patti Adler, Pete Brodnitz, Kathy Charmaz, John
Deighton, Richard Leo, Dawn Iacobucci, Gary Marx, and Jim Witte for their
feedback on various portions of this book. Ira Silver offered excellent sug-
gestions on a separate book, Talking Sociology, and was an endless source
of support. Working with Gary Alan Fine helped improve my sociological
sensibility and writing. Kent Grayson's counsel, writing, and long conver-
sations with me about this book were vital. I deeply appreciate his help.
My departmental and institutional colleagues at Lafayette College have
encouraged this work. I am grateful to Dan Bauer, Bill Bissell, Rebecca
Kissane, Susan Niles, the late Thomas Norton, Elaine Reynolds, Howard
Schneiderman, and Andrea Smith for all of their support. Thanks also
to Jackie Wogotz. The members of the Applied Probability seminar also
made sober and serious contributions. Lafayette College provided me
with a junior faculty leave and a publication grant. Invited talks at Clem-
son University, Colgate University, Wellesley College, and Northwestern
University and at several professional conferences helped me further ar-
ticulate some of these ideas.
Thank you also to the reviewers for their suggestions and to Nancy
Ferguson, Ange Romeo-Hall, Katy Meigs, and Pam Bodenhorn for their
work on this manuscript. To Fran Benson of Cornell University Press for
her support of this project and for her excellent ideas-who knew that
working with an editor could be such a blast?
Thank you to my father and mother, Mark and Peggy Shulman, and to
my sisters, Alice Modlin and Judy Roth. Special thanks to Sherry, Sheldon,
and Michael Blackman.
I owe my greatest thanks to my wife, Susan. Completing this book in-
volved her blood, sweat, and tears as much as my own. I wish I had a
poet's gift to come up with the right words to express my profound love
and appreciation for you. My father once told me, "Everything good that
happens to you is Susan's fault." Dad's right. Finally, I dedicate this book
to Susan and our son, Alex, who is the bravest person we know. We re-
spect and love you and want to thank you for making your Mom and
Dad's hearts full of joy.
