Sreedhari Desai
PhD Student
Department of Management
Email: sdesai@law.harvard.edu
My Website: www.sreedharidesai.com
Sreedhari Desai is a doctoral candidate in Management at the David Eccles School of Business in the University of Utah. She did her undergraduate studies at the Punjab Engineering College in the field of Metallurgical Engineering, and has an M.S. degree in Finance from the University of Utah. Her research investigates how individuals behave in organizations, with a focus on ethical decision making, fairness and negotiation.
Sreedhari is currently a graduate research fellow at the Harvard Law School's Program on Negotiation. She is also the recipient of a Research Initiative Grant offered by the National Stock Exchange of India for her project titled, 'Price Limits: Are they Worth the Price?' She has presented papers at several conferences and has been invited to attend consortia and workshops such as those sponsored by the Australian Research Council's Economic Design Network and the International Foundation for Research in Experimental Economics. She was also a recipient of the 2008 Mariner S. Eccles Graduate Fellowship in Political Economy for her dissertation and was a finalist for the 2008 ASPEN dissertation proposal award.
Sreedhari is involved in several research projects with her chair, Dr. Arthur P. Brief. Her other co-authors include Dr. Max Bazerman (Harvard Business School), Dr. Dolly Chugh (NYU Stern), Christopher Dial (Harvard University), Dr. Kristina Diekmann (University of Utah), Dr. Jennifer George (Rice University), Dr. Chris Oveis (Harvard University), Dr. Harris Sondak (University of Utah), Dr. Nathan Steele (University of Illinois-Springfield), and Chia-Jung Tsay (Harvard Business School).
She has taught an MBA course in personal financial planning at Westminster College, SLC (Instructor evaluation: 4.2 out of 5), and an undergraduate course in organizational behavior at the University of Utah (Instructor evaluation: 5.28 out of 6), and has published some of her teaching materials. She has also worked as a teaching assistant in several courses, including an MBA course in negotiation, and an MBA course in business ethics. Sreedhari is on the job market for the 2009-10 academic year.
During her stay at Harvard (June 2009 to August 2010), Sreedhari will divide her time between Professor Max Bazerman's Non-Lab, Professor Mahzarin Banaji's Implicit Social Cognition Lab, Professor Joshua Greene's Moral Cognition Lab, and activities at the Harvard Law School's Program on Negotiation. Her updated contact information is as follows:
Sreedhari D. Desai
PON Graduate Research Fellow
Pound Hall 513
1563 Massachusetts Ave.
Harvard Law School
Cambridge, MA - 02138
Ph: (617) 495 7705
Sreedhari D. Desai
Member of Implicit Social Cognition Lab
1580 William James Hall
Dept. of Psychology, Harvard University
33 Kirkland Street
Cambridge, MA - 02138
Ph: (617) 384 9754
EDUCATION
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Ph.D. 2010 (Expected) University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
Major: Organizational Behavior
Dissertation: Warding off organizational vampires: Moral cues and social norms as a necklace of garlic
Chair: Arthur P. Brief
Members: Max H. Bazerman, Kristina A. Diekmann, Fred Rhodewalt, Harris Sondak
Graduate Research Fellowship, P.O.N., Harvard Law School (2009-2010)
Mariner S. Eccles Graduate Fellowship in Political Economy (2008-2009)
Finalist, ASPEN Dissertation Proposal Award (2008)
M.S. 2005 University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT
Major: Finance
Masters Thesis: Price limits: Are they worth the price?
Chair: Hendrik Bessembinder
National Stock Exchange of India (N.S.E.) Research Initiative Grant # 168 (2006-2008)
Travel Award, International Foundation for Research in Experimental Economics (2006)
B.S. 2001 Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, India
Major: Metallurgical Engineering
Thesis: The role of copper and nickel in austempered ductile iron
DISSERTATION
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In my dissertation entitled, “Warding off organizational vampires: Moral cues and social norms as a necklace of garlic,” I examine the possibility of offering employees a safe way to prevent their superiors from asking them to perform unethical acts. Specifically, building on Bargh’s work on automaticity and Cialdini’s work on social norms, I investigate whether employees may dissuade their superiors from issuing unethical directives by exposing them to cues or norms related to ethics. If displaying cues such as moral quotations at the bottom of emails, pictures of ethical leaders in one’s cubicle, or religious accessories on one’s person can trigger implicit psychological processes in superiors’ minds such that, without realizing it, they feel discouraged from asking their subordinates to engage in unethical acts, then the latter may have a way of “saying no” without fearing subsequent retaliation.
PUBLICATIONS
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Desai, S. D., Brief, A. P., & George, J. (2009). Meaner managers: A consequence of income inequality. In R. Kramer, M. Bazerman, & A. Tenbrunsel (Eds.), Social decision making: Social dilemmas, social values, and ethical judgments (pp. 315-334). NY: Taylor & Francis.
Desai, S. D., Brief, A. P., & Williamson, R. B. (forthcoming). Task design. In R. J. Corsini (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Psychology (4th Ed.). NY: John Wiley.
MANUSCRIPTS UNDER REVIEW
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Desai, S. D. (2nd round of invited review). Naïve traders and price limits: Moths to the flame or protective firewall? Journal of Behavioral Finance.
MANUSCRIPTS IN PREPARATION OR IN PROGRESS
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Williamson, R. B., Desai, S. D., & Brief, A. P. (2010). When the glass ceiling gets thicker: Gender diversity in the executive suite. Being finalized for submission to Administrative Science Quarterly. (Both first and second authors contributed equally.)
Desai, S. D., Brief, A. P., & George, J. (2010). When executives rake in millions: Meanness in organizations. Being finalized for submission to Administrative Science Quarterly.
Desai, S. D., Sondak, H., & Diekmann, K. A. (2010). The limits of fairness: How perceived uncertainty and risk propensity influence reactions to procedural justice. Being finalized for submission to Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
Desai, S. D., & Oveis, C. (2010). Sad but shrewd? Role of incidental sadness on retribution. Being finalized for submission to Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
Desai, S. D., & Steele, N. L. (2010). When getting shortchanged seems fair: Changes in sadness levels and their effect on the perception of fairness. Being finalized for submission to Emotion.
Desai, S. D., & Dial, C. (2010). Religious beliefs and environmental concerns: Recycling in the workplace. Data analyzed for 1st study. 2nd study currently being designed.
Desai, S. D., Chugh, D., & Brief, A. P. (2010). The organizational implications of a traditional marriage: Can a domestic traditionalist by night be an organizational egalitarian by day? Data collection for 3rd study underway.
Desai, S. D., Sondak, H., & Diekmann, K. A. (2010). When is a pound of fairness more than a pound of fairness? Data collected and analyzed for 1st study. 2nd study currently being designed.
Desai, S. D., & Diekmann, K. A. (2010). Expecting the worst and getting the best: How overestimating your opponent’s competitiveness may lead to a pleasant surprise. Transcripts from 2nd study being analyzed.
Desai, S. D., Tsay, C., & Bazerman, M. H. (2010). Wolves in sheep’s clothing: Impression management or motivated forgetting? Data collection for 1st study underway.
Desai, S. D., & Bazerman, M. H. (2010). Uncertainty and perceived CEO competence. Manuscript in preparation.
REFEREED & INVITED PRESENTATIONS
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Desai, S. D., & Oveis, C. (2010). Sad but shrewd? Role of incidental sadness on retribution. Negotiations and Decision Making: Trust, Emotions, Ethics, and Morality Workshop, Harvard Business School, Cambridge, MA.
Desai, S. D., Sondak, H., & Diekmann, K. A. (2009). The limits of fairness. Rutgers University, New Jersey, NY.
Desai, S. D., Sondak, H., & Diekmann, K. A. (2009). The limits of fairness. London School of Economics & Political Science, London, UK.
Desai, S. D., & Steele, N. L. (2008). When getting shortchanged seems fair: Changes in sadness levels and their effect on the perception of fairness. Midwestern Academy of Management Conference, St. Louis, MO.
Desai, S. D., Sondak, H., & Diekmann, K. A. (2008). The failure of fairness: Uncertainty matters. Academy of Management Conference, Anaheim, CA.
Desai, S. D., Brief, A. P., George, J. (2008). Meaner managers: The role of income inequality and power. Academy of Management Conference, Anaheim, CA.
Desai, S. D. (2008). Sadness and retribution: Does incidental sadness make a person more calculating? Behavioural Economics: Theory, Experiment and Policy Workshop, Melbourne, Australia.
Desai, S. D. (2006). Price limits: Are they worth the price? 12th Visiting Graduate Student Workshop, International Foundation for Research in Experimental Economics (IFREE), Arlington, VA.
Desai, S. D. (2006). Group performance: A theory of multivariable interactions. Western Association of Management, Long Beach, CA.
FUNDED GRANTS, FELLOWSHIPS, AWARDS & HONORS
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Graduate Research Fellowship, Program on Negotiation, Harvard Law School (2009-2010)
Mariner S. Eccles Graduate Fellowship in Political Economy (2008-2009)
Finalist, ASPEN Dissertation Proposal Award (2008)
National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) Research Initiative Grant # 168 (2006-2008)
Graduate Travel Award, Australian Research Council EDN (2008)
Conference Scholarship, Ethical Dimensions in Business, University of Notre Dame (2008)
Travel Award, International Foundation for Research in Experimental Economics (2006)
Graduate Travel Award, Western Academy of Management (2006)
RESEARCH INTERESTS
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Ethics and issues related to fairness in the workplace; Gender Diversity; Power; Conflict management and negotiations; Managing pro-environmental behavior; Religious beliefs and work outcomes; Inter-temporal decision-making.
INVITED CONFERENCES, CONSORTIA & WORKSHOPS
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Negotiations and Decision Making: Trust, Emotions, Ethics, and Morality Workshop, Harvard Business School, Cambridge, MA (TEEMs 2010).
Ethical Dimensions in Business: Perspectives from the Business Academic Community, Notre Dame at South Bend, IN (EDB 2008).
CM Doctoral Student Consortium, Academy of Management Meetings at Anaheim, CA (AOM 2008).
Behavioural Economics: Theory, Experiment and Policy Workshop at Melbourne, Australia (EDN 2008).
OB Doctoral Student Consortium, Academy of Management Meetings at Philadelphia, PA (AOM 2007).
Internal Foundation for Research in Experimental Economics’ 12th Visiting Graduate Student Workshop at Arlington, VA (IFREE 2006).
Stanford Institute of Theoretical Economics Workshop at Stanford, CA (SITE 2004).
TEACHING INTERESTS
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Ethics, Negotiation, Organizational behavior, Decision making
PUBLISHED TEACHING MATERIALS
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Desai, S. D. (2009). The Buena Vista condo. In R. J., Lewicki, B. Barry, & D. M. Saunders (Eds.), Negotiation: Readings, Cases, and Exercises (6thed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
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INSTRUCTOR
Human Behavior in Organizations – MGT 3680, Fall 2007, University of Utah (Instructor evaluation: 5.28 out of 6)
Personal Financial Planning and Insurance - MBA 615, Summer 2005, Westminster College, SLC, Utah (Instructor evaluation: 4.2 out of 5)
TEACHING ASSISTANT
MBA Elective on Leading Responsibly – MBA 6545, (Prof. Arthur P. Brief, 2009, 2007)
MBA Elective on Managerial Negotiations – MBA 6500 (Prof. Harris Sondak, 2006)
MBA Elective on Managerial Negotiations – MBA 6500 (Prof. Kristina A. Diekmann, 2006)
AFFILIATIONS
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Academy of Management
Western Academy of Management
International Association of Conflict Management
Economic Science Association
Economic Design Network
Society for Personality and Social Psychology
Society for Judgment and Decision Making
PERSONAL INFORMATION
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CITIZENSHIP
United States
India
LANGUAGES
Proficient: English, Kannada, Telugu, Hindi
Basic: Punjabi, Spanish
NON-ACADEMIC INTERESTS
Oil painting (www.sreedharidesai.com)
REFERENCES
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Arthur P. Brief
David S. Eccles Chair in Business Ethics
David Eccles School of Business
University of Utah
Ph: (801) 585 9916
Email: arthur.brief@business.utah.edu
Max H. Bazerman
Jesse Isidor Straus Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School
Ph: (617) 495 6429
Email: mbazerman@hbs.edu
Joshua D. Margolis
Professor of Business Administration
Harvard Business School
Harvard University
Ph: (617) 495 6444
Email: jmargolis@hbs.edu
Kristina A. Diekmann
Professor & David Eccles Faculty Fellow
David Eccles School of Business
University of Utah
Ph: (801) 581 8524
Email: mgtkd@business.utah.edu
Sreedhari Desai
PhD Student
Department of Management
Email: sdesai@law.harvard.edu
Phone numbers:
(office): (801) 505-1090
Office: 3 KDGB
Office Hours: By appointment
Department of Management
1645 East Campus Center Drive
Salt Lake City, Utah 84112-9304
