Business School Experts on the Glass Ceiling, and More – Chicago News
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Chicago business schools this week.
Here’s a Better Way to Schedule Surgeries – Kellogg Insight
Northwestern Kellogg Associate Professor of Operations Chaithanya Bandi and McCombs’ Diwakar Gupta recently published new research that focuses on how hospital administrators can optimize operating room schedules “while still satisfying surgeon needs.”
According to the article, “the researchers developed an innovative algorithm to improve OR operations, minimizing the number of ORs hospitals had to keep open, while still honoring surgeon requests,” which can drive savings of anywhere from 10-25 percent in OR costs and “lead to lower healthcare costs and thus lower insurance premiums.”
Bandi explains, “In healthcare settings, these kinds of savings don’t translate immediately to consumers. But better utilization of OR capacity helps the hospital see more patients in a shorter period of time, with lower rejections or delays for surgery requests.”
Bandi hopes to apply an “algorithm similar to the OR-optimization model to help data centers improve project efficiency. “Projects like these can take hours to run and incur very large energy costs. By some estimates, as much as 12% of the world’s total energy goes toward these projects.”
You can read more from Kellogg Insight here.
The Glass Ceiling: Three Reasons Why it Still Exists and is Hurting the Economy – Chicago Booth News
In a new working paper entitled “The Glass Ceiling,” Chicago Booth Professor Marianne Bertrand outlines three factors “why the glass ceiling persists in excluding women from top-paying jobs.”
- Women with college degrees often choose to work in fields that offer lower incomes.
- Psychological differences between men and women could account for up to 10 percent of the pay gap.
- The demands for child care, housework and other life chores outside of work fall more heavily on women than on men.
She explains, “In a world where talent is distributed equally among women and men, an economy that does not fully tap into the leadership skills offered by women is necessarily inefficient. Talent is left on the table when women are not placed in leadership positions, and the economy suffers.”
Chicago Booth Professor Marianne Bertrand
You can read more from Chicago Booth News here and check out “The Glass Ceiling” here.
‘We All Lose’ in Trade War, Says Gies Business Professor – Gies College of Business News
The University of Illinois Gies College of Business blog spoke with Professor of Finance Don Fullerton to understand the potential long-term ramifications of recent trade tensions between the U.S. and China.
The U.S. recently announced 10 percent tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese goods [like] industrial machinery parts, food seasonings, and network routers, while China countered with tariffs on $60 billion worth of American meat, chemicals, and clothes, which are set to increase to 10-25 percent by the end of the year.
“There’s going to be significant costs to bear. A lot of economists were arguing strongly against a trade war because in the long run we all lose. We’ll end up paying more for all kinds of goods. We’ll pay more for domestically-produced goods because we don’t get to buy the cheap imports anymore. And the goods we do import, we’ll pay more for because of the tariffs.”
You can read the Gies College of Business News here.
Chicago News: Northwestern on Bitcoin, Notre Dame Explores Psychopathy and More
Let’s explore some of the most interesting stories that have emerged from Chicago business schools this week.
New Cryptocurrencies, Same Old Problems – Kellogg Insight
Following Bitcoin’s record high $19,511 BPI at the end of 2017, which has already begun its slow steady decline (its BPI is around $10,800 as of Feb 19), folks outside the standard-issue Silk Road users and modern-day gold prospectors have begun to openly (and loudly) question whether we’re due for a global cryptocurrency takeover. Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management professor Sarit Markovich advises eager beavers to slow their rolls:
“There are certainly huge advantages to blockchain technology, especially when it comes to cross-border transactions. But I doubt we’re going to reach the point where decentralized cryptocurrencies replace cash or distributed ledgers replace central banks. There’s too much room for manipulation. Instead, it looks like the real innovation will occur within large institutions, which is not exactly democratization.”
Markovich goes on to note another problem with the current state of Bitcoin, which is the preponderance of “whales” mining the currency. He explains:
“In addition to ‘mining pools,’ there is also the problem of ‘whales:’ roughly 1,000 people own around 40 percent of all bitcoins. As the market continues to rise, there is a risk that some may be in a position to manipulate the market. For example, they could collude in an effort to drive the price of Bitcoin up, then cash out all at once—and perhaps even bet against the futures market.”
Read more about the future of cryptocurrency here.
Psychopaths Tend to Benefit and Flourish Under Abusive Bosses – Mendoza Ideas & News
Got a boss from H-E-double hockey sticks? You’re not alone. But what might make you unique is your ability to stand heat. It turns out some folks actually do quite well under cruel conditions. It also turns out that these folks might have more in common with Richard Ramirez or John Wayne Gacy than they’d care to admit, according to a new study by Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business assistant professor of management Charlice Hurst:
“We found that primary psychopaths benefit under abusive supervisors. Relative to their peers low in primary psychopathy, they felt less anger and more engagement and positive emotions under abusive supervisors.” “It may reward and retain exactly the kind of people who are likely to perpetuate abusive cultures,” she says. “Psychopaths thriving under abusive supervisors would be better positioned to get ahead of their peers.”
Hust continues, saying:
“If they have a problem of endemic abuse, like Wells Fargo — where former employees have reported that managers used tactics designed to induce fear and shame in order to achieve unrealistic sales goals—and upper-level managers are either unaware of it or are not taking action, they might notice increasing levels of engagement due to turnover among employees low in primary psychopathy and retention of those high in primary psychopathy. At the extreme, they could end up with a highly engaged workforce of psychopaths.”
Read more about Dr. Hurst’s research, entitled “Are ‘Bad’ Employees Happier Under Bad Bosses? Differing Effects of Abusive Supervision on Low and High Primary Psychopathy Employees,” here.
Financial Compensation Can Distract From Emotional Suffering – Chicago Booth Review
University of Chicago Booth School of Business professor Christopher Hsee, Northwestern professor Xueer Yu and Ph.D. candidate Shirley Zhang recently explored the complex analysis required to compensate victims who suffer grave psychological, physical, and financial duress.
What the trio found, surprisingly, is that psychological and physical distress was often much more rewarding than financial damage. And even mentioning financial damage, coupled with psychological and physical damage, often hindered compensation.
The reason? Financial damage is generally empirical and can be exacted with ease.
“It would be better to say ‘I was so scared that I lost two nights’ sleep’ than to say ‘I was so scared that I lost two nights’ sleep and one day’s work,’” the researchers write. “If the victim mentions one day’s work, the mediator would likely compensate the victim for only her one day’s pay. If the victim does not mention one’s day work, the mediator would likely award more, unless the victim has a high-paying job and the judge is aware of it.”
Read more about their research, recently published in the January issue of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, here.
