Being deceptive — or not totally honest — in negotiations is fairly common. But two experiments found that it can have a harmful effect: It can spread in an organization. Fortunately, there are measures that can curb the practice of potentially contagious excessive deception. By Leopold Ried, assistant professor at Erasmus University’s Rotterdam School of Management; Stephanie Eckerd, associate professor at the University of Tennessee; and Lutz Kaufmann, professor at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management in Düsseldorf.
Imagine you’re trying to strike a deal with a supplier or you are a supplier trying . . .