“The authors elucidate the ‘bright’ connotation of pride, namely authentic pride. They argue that examining both positive and negative facets of pride is a critical complement to understanding the governance landscape.

Virginia Bodolica, Martin Spraggon: Department of Management, Marketing and Public Administration, School of Business and Management, American University of Sharjah

Journal of Business Ethics, May 2011, Volume 100, Issue 3, pp 535-550

Many scholars investigating corporate underperformance and strategic inefficiency have typically emphasised the ‘dark side’ of pride. Specifically. they have identified hubristic pride as a key characteristic  of over-confident executives leading them to engage in value destroying mergers and acquisitions.

The authors elucidate the ‘bright’ connotation of pride, namely authentic pride. They identify  and discuss the “myriad of positive governance implications” arising from managers’ tendency to authentic pride. They argue that examining both positive and negative facets of pride is a critical complement to understanding the governance landscape.

Their article “allows practitioners to better understand the emotional processes involved in governance that are needed to predict the workplace effectiveness of employees, identify individuals prone to experience authentic pride in the early stages of the recruitment process, and design specific interventions for acting upon and putting emotional energy into productive use.”

Access the full article here: Behavioural governance and self-conscious emotions