Thursday, November 10, 2016

Binding Your Strongest to Your Institution: Acting Proactively

1.       I was emailing with a friend at another institution, and she wrote me:

I have a long standing policy of not negotiating using outside offers. This is built on the idea that all information is available ex-ante as well as after an external offer is obtained. Good management acts ex-ante. If one  has to act ex-post, then it is better to take the outside offer. 

Over the years, I have seen many an institution not being proactive, that ex-ante move, and wait for an offer from a peer institution. I understand why, given the not-so-rare promise of a dean that someone is “world-class” or whatever.  The institution may well have been burned more than once, and the confidence needed to act proactively may need to come from the Provost’s office I suspect.


The cases I am thinking of are standouts, and the record speaks for itself. The institution would do well to act proactively, and with those standouts make sure they are bound to the institution as far as the institution can provide as long as the colleague is not being overly greedy (greedy is fine).

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