G. Richard Shell

G. Richard Shell
  • Thomas Gerrity Professor
  • Professor of Legal Studies & Business Ethics and Management

Contact Information

  • office Address:

    643 Jon M. Huntsman Hall
    3730 Walnut Street
    Philadelphia, PA 19104

Research Interests: business ethics, leading with values, negotiation, persuasion, influence, moral psychology, positive psychology, personal and professional achievement, legal and political aspects of competitive strategy

Links: CV, Personal Website

Overview

Education

JD with Honors, University of Virginia; BA with Honors, Princeton University.

Recent Consulting

Negotiation, business ethics, personal/leadership development, and legal strategy advice for a variety of clients, including firms and individuals in the health care industry, higher education, financial services, tech, family businesses, and finance.  Designed and taught customized seminars in the United States and abroad for Google, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, Enterprise Rent-a-Car, General Electric, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Starwood Capital Group, Christie’s Auction House, the World Economic Forum, and the United Food and Commercial Workers International labor union. Has addressed the American Bankers Association, Army War College, Chief of Naval Operations’ Senior Strategy Group, and both Army and Navy Special Operations Forces. Has also worked closely with the FBI’s Crisis Negotiation Unit.

Career and Recent Professional Awards; Teaching Awards

2013 Business Book of the Year and Personal Development Book of the Year Awards for Springboard: Launching Your Personal Search for Success; 1999 Book Award for Excellence for Bargaining for Advantage: Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable People; Wharton Excellence in Teaching Award, 2020, 2019, 2018; Hauck Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (highest undergraduate teaching award), 2009; Wharton Undergraduate Excellence in Teaching Award (top 10 teachers by course evaluations): 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2012, 2009, 2006, 2005, 1991, 1990; Wharton MBA Class of 1984 Teaching Award (highest MBA teaching award), 2009; Wharton MBA Excellence in Teaching Award (top 8 teachers by course evaluations), 2017, 2009, 1995, 1994, 1993; Wharton MBA Teaching Award for “Going Above and Beyond” in educational dedication and innovation in the Core Curriculum, 2016, 2017; Wharton Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Award 1996; Miller-Sherrerd MBA Core Curriculum Teaching Award, 1996; Executive MBA Teaching Award for Electives, 1996; Wharton MBA Core Curricular Cluster Award, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999.

Academic Positions Held

Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics, the Wharton School: 1986-present. Named Thomas Gerrity Professor, 2001; Chairperson, Legal Studies and Business Ethics Department, 1995-2000 and 2010-Present; Pfizer Foundation Term Assistant Professor of Legal Studies, 1986-91. Previous academic appointments: Lecturer in Legal Studies Program, Brandeis University. Visiting Scholar, Harvard School of Law, Harvard Program on Negotiation.

Other Positions

Associate, Hill & Barlow, Boston; Law Clerk, Judge Levin H. Campbell, United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Boston, MA; Account Executive and Market Researcher, J.R. Taft Corporation, Washington, DC; Social worker and housing relocation counselor, Washington, DC.

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Research

General research interests include business ethics, leading with values, the psychology of achievement, psychology of happiness, and philosophy of success; moral psychology; negotiation tactics and strategy, the art and science of persuasion, and effective interpersonal influence. Current Projects: publishing book (The Conscience Code) on how to take effective action on your values while protecting your career, researching the neuroscience and psychology of belief states and their roles in negotiation, persuasion, and influence.  Investigating culture as a variable in global conflicts and negotiations. Researching moral psychology, behavioral ethics, and responsible leadership.

Teaching

Teach courses for undergraduates and MBA students on the Literature of Success, Negotiations and Conflict Management, and Responsibility in Business.

Current Courses (Spring 2024)

  • LGST6120 - Responsibility In Bus.

    This course introduces students to important ethical and legal challenges they will face as leaders in business. The course materials will be useful to students preparing for managerial positions that are likely to place them in advisory and/or agency roles owing duties to employers, clients, suppliers, and customers. Although coverage will vary depending on instructor, the focus of the course will be on developing skills in ethical and legal analyses that can assist managers as they make both individual-level and firm-level decisions about the responsible courses of action when duties, loyalties, rules, norms, and interests are in conflict. For example, the rules of insider trading may form the basis for lessons in some sections. Group assignments, role-plays, and case studies may, at the instructor's discretion, be used to help illustrate the basic theoretical frameworks. Course materials will highlight industry codes and professional norms, as well as the importance of personal and/or religious values.

    LGST6120006 ( Syllabus )

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  • LGST6110 - Resp in Global Mgmt

    This course uses the global business context to introduce students to important legal, ethical and cultural challenges they will face as business leaders. Cases and materials will address how business leaders, constrained by law and motivated to act responsibly in a global context, should analyze relevant variables to make wise decisions. Topics will include an introduction to the basic theoretical frameworks used in the analysis of ethical issues, such as right-based, consequentialist-based, and virtue-based reasoning, and conflicting interpretations of corporate responsibility. The course will include materials that introduce students to basic legal (common law vs. civil law) and normative (human rights) regimes at work in the global economy as well as sensitize them to the role of local cultural traditions in global business activity. Topics may also include such issues as comparative forms of corporate governance, bribery and corruption in global markets, human rights issues, diverse legal compliance systems, corporate responses to global poverty, global environmental responsibilities, and challenges arising when companies face conflicting ethical demands between home and local, host country mores. The pedagogy emphasizes globalized cases, exercises, and theoretical materials from the fields of legal studies, business ethics and social responsibility.

  • LGST6120 - Responsibility in Bus.

    This course introduces students to important ethical and legal challenges they will face as leaders in business. The course materials will be useful to students preparing for managerial positions that are likely to place them in advisory and/or agency roles owing duties to employers, clients, suppliers, and customers. Although coverage will vary depending on instructor, the focus of the course will be on developing skills in ethical and legal analyses that can assist managers as they make both individual-level and firm-level decisions about the responsible courses of action when duties, loyalties, rules, norms, and interests are in conflict. For example, the rules of insider trading may form the basis for lessons in some sections. Group assignments, role-plays, and case studies may, at the instructor's discretion, be used to help illustrate the basic theoretical frameworks. Course materials will highlight industry codes and professional norms, as well as the importance of personal and/or religious values.

Awards and Honors

  • MBA Excellence in Teaching Award, 2017
  • MBA “Goes Above and Beyond the Call of Duty” Core Teaching Award, 2017
  • Undergraduate Excellence in Teaching Award, 2014-2017
  • Undergraduate Excellence in Teaching Award, 2016
  • Personal Development Book of the Year, 2013 Description

    Springboard: Launching Your Personal Search for Success was awarded the prize for Best Personal Development for 2013 by CEO-READ, the largest business bookseller in America.

     

  • Business Book of the Year, 2013 Description

    Springboard: Launching Your personal Search for Success was awarded the prize Best Overall Business Book for 2013 by CEO-READ, the largest business bookseller in America.

  • Huntsman Program in International Business: Senior Class Teaching Award, 2011
  • David W. Hauck Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, 2009
  • Class of 1984 award for teacher with highest teaching evaluations in the MBA program, 2009
  • Undergraduate Excellence in Teaching Award, 2006
  • Undergraduate Excellence in Teaching Award, 1999
  • Center for Public Resources, Institute for Dispute Resolution’s Book Award for Excellence for Bargaining for Advantage: Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable People (Penguin), 1999
  • Miller-Sherrerd MBA Core Curriculum Teaching Awards, 1997
  • Executive MBA Program Outstanding Teaching Award, 1996
  • MBA Excellence in Teaching Award, 1995 Description

    The Excellence in Teaching Awards are awarded annually to eight (8) MBA faculty members who receive the highest average instructor rating on their course evaluation forms over the three prior semesters. The course evaluation forms are filled out by the students at the conclusion of every course.

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See It My Way: Top Tips for Persuading Others

Even highly experienced leaders can stumble when it comes to persuading individuals or their team. In this Nano Tool from Wharton Executive Education, Wharton’s G. Richard Shell offers guidance on how to tailor your pitch to achieve your goals.Read More

Knowledge at Wharton - 8/9/2022
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Closeup of a Wharton handout for the Commitment Project on a table, facing a window and a cityscape.Student-Led Wharton Commitment Project Takes a Personal Approach to the Concept of a Professional Oath

New student-led initiative asks graduating MBAs to take the opportunity to pause and reflect on their personal commitments beyond Wharton before they step back into the business world….

Wharton Stories - 05/17/2017
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