HGSE Professor Howard Gardner and Other Renowned Psychologists Release Findings on What It Takes to Do "Good Work" in Today's Profit-Driven World

Posted October 2, 2001
By News editor

What should a reporter do if his publisher requires him to sensationalize his stories at the expense of legitimate news? What should a geneticist do if she fears that her research will be misused by future generations? In today's profit-driven world, dilemmas like these confront professionals in nearly all fields. How can workers live up to the demands of their jobs and the expectations of society while still taking personal pride in their work? How can they create "good work"--work that is both of expert quality and which also benefits the broader society--in such an environment?

Since 1995, three of the country's most renowned psychologists, motivated by a passion to understand how people are able to maintain ethical standards and produce good work in a time of turbulent change and increasing pressure for profit, have sought to answer these questions. In their new book, GOOD WORK: When Excellence and Ethics Meet (Basic Books, October 2001), Howard Gardner, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, and William Damon reveal their discoveries, offering a rallying cry for all those who believe that individuals have the power to do good despite the chokehold of government, institutions, and business.

The authors conducted hundreds of in-depth interviews with people in such disciplines as business, jazz music, philanthropy, theater, and higher education. In GOOD WORK, they focus on two fields, journalism and genetics, both of which are of major importance for the future--one with the potential to control the content of our minds, the other poised to control the content of our bodies.

Among those whose voices are included in the book are Katharine Graham, Bob Woodward, Tom Brokaw, James D. Watson, Celera head Craig Venter, Human Genome Sciences head William Haseltine, and cancer researcher Judah Folkman, as well as junior scientists and journalists. Through the participants' anecdotes and comments, the authors offer guidelines for people who feel that their daily work is no longer aligned with their ethical standards. GOOD WORK presents stirring examples of individuals who took personal stands when they felt their values were being compromised:

Ray Suarez who, when increasingly frustrated with the sensationalizing of his stories, was on the verge of leaving the news business. He found a home at National Public Radio where he has been an innovator, honored within the profession as well as widely respected by the listening public.
Carol Marin who resigned her position as co-anchor with Chicago's NBC affiliate when the station hired Jerry Springer to do a series of commentaries on Marin's nightly news show. She felt this trivialized the news and violated essential journalistic standards and, when her protests fell on deaf ears, she left the station.
Linus Pauling who, during the Cold War, took a leadership position in expanding the realm of science by exhorting other scientists to not be co-opted by projects supporting the development of new weapons.

"Nearly all of us are subjected to many of the same pressures and opportunities that exist in journalism and science," write the authors. "Each of us is dealing with a world in which change is rapid, and market forces and opportunities are extremely powerful." In GOOD WORK, they demonstrate that it is possible to do good work despite these pressures, and show why it is necessary for our future.

About the Authors

Howard Gardner is Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education, Chairman of the Steering Committee of Project Zero at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Adjunct Professor of Neurology at the Boston University School of Medicine. He is the author of eighteen books, including Frames of Mind, Creating Minds, Leading Minds, Multiple Intelligences, and Intelligence Reframed. He has been honored with the MacArthur "Genius" award, the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award and eighteen honorary doctorates. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced "CHICK-sent-me-high") is Professor at the Drucker School of Management at Claremont Graduate University. His books include the bestselling Flow, Being Adolescent, The Evolving Self, Creativity, Finding Flow, and Becoming Adult. He is a member of the National Academy of Education, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Leisure Sciences. He lives in Claremont, California.

William Damon is Professor of Education and Director of the Center on Adolescence at Stanford University. For the past twenty years, Damon has written widely on moral development at all ages of human life. His books include Self-Understanding in Childhood and Adolescence, The Moral Child, Some Do Care, and most recently, The Youth Charter. Damon has received awards from many foundations, including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, and The John Templeton Foundation. He lives in Palo Alto, California.