From Hire to Liar: The Role of Deception in the Workplace [Hardcover]

David Shulman (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 080144473X | ISBN-13: 978-0801444739 | Publication Date: December 2006 | Edition: 1

"There are always clients to please, rules to subvert, difficult tasks to perform, work to shirk, and upward mobility to seek. . . . Most people with work experience have encountered at least some version of exaggerated resumes, exploitative bosses, self-interested shirking, collusion against disliked colleagues, lying to clients, and countless other variants of lies on the job. This book tells the tale of such lies in the workplace and examines their impact on ethics, administrating work, and productivity."-from the Introduction

According to David Shulman, deception is a pervasive element of daily working life. Sometimes it is an official part of one's work-as in the case study he offers of private detectives, who lie for a living-but more often it is simply part of the fabric of life on the job. Shulman argues that workplace cultures socialize individuals into using deception as a tool in performing their everyday work. To make his point he focuses not on extreme cases but rather on less obvious forms of deception, such as pretending to show deference, shirking one's work, crafting misleading accounting reports, making false claims to customers and coworkers, and covering up business transgressions.

Shulman analyzes the motives, tactics, rationalizations, and ethical ramifications of acting deceptively in the workplace. From Hire to Liar offers readers both detailed accounts of workplace lies and new ways to think about the important effects of everyday workplace deceptions.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this rigorous examination, anthropology and sociology professor Shulman studies more than 30 different workplace environments to reveal the various methods and rationales behind employee deception, from "Subterranean Education and Training" to "Deception as Social Currency" to "Goofing Off and Getting Along." Shulman opens his report with a detailed analysis of private detectives and their use of deception as "official work," classifying a number of strategies which he methodically uncovers in typical office permutations-including a litany of usual suspects such as "exaggerated resumes, exploitative bosses, self-interested shirking, collusion against disliked collegues and lying to clients." Shulman explains the utility, purpose and effect of "informal deception" on workplace ethics and productivity in great detail, including plenty of on-site interviews with employees and managers, making this a highly informative but at times overwhelming volume. Those workers with an academic mind will find much to consider here, but readers looking for a user-friendly guide to office deception will have to look elsewhere.
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About the Author

David Shulman is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Sociology at Lafayette College.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 213 pages
• Publisher: Ilr Pr; 1 edition (December 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 080144473X
• ISBN-13: 978-0801444739
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,901,427 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A superbly executed study of deception at all levels, January 20, 2008

By 

Jessica Lux (Rosamond, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: From Hire to Liar: The Role of Deception in the Workplace (Paperback)

Author David Shulman states that deception is a necessary element of the modern workplace "unless, of course, you think the best thing to do is tell your annoying boss or client what you really think, or to comply with every cumbersome rule or unnecessary piece of paperwork that slows down your performance." Dishonesty is a policy, whether it is gossiping, fibbing to cover up a botched deadline, sweet-talking your boss, underestimating costs to win a bid, or surfing the web on company time.

Shulman's book makes a case study of both official, sanctioned workplaces deception (the work of a private eye, for example) and unofficial deceptive behavior. The author examines the ethics of deception on an everyday level, probing the spectrum from trivial white lies to grave criminal acts. He even forces workers and organizations to confront deception head-on, discovering that workers tend to cite game theory for lying, while organizations tend to decry bad apples among the worker population.

The author deftly combines both aggregate and anecdotal research methods. (The appendix has comprehensive research design notes, and hundreds of works are cited.) Shulman's thesis carries academic weight due to his methodology, but his first person interviews reveal truths that resonate with any modern office worker. One respondent told Shulman, "Rules are elastic - they bend enough to let powerful people slip by and then snap back into shape to prevent less powerful people from doing the same thing." Shulman found that workers are identified as trustworthy if they cover up necessary violations, leading to a key sense of harmony in the office environment.

This slim volume is impeccably organized and to-the-point. One can read the opening and closing chapters to glean the executive summary and then quickly reference the more detailed information in the heart of the book. Includes citations and extensive chapter notes.

1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From Hire to Liar, March 31, 2007

By 

Pat B. Warren (Miami, Fl) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: From Hire to Liar: The Role of Deception in the Workplace (Paperback)

I will have to say, I am shocked at lying everywhere. I bought this because I became aware of lying everywhere I go. It is a good read.