Jeffrey Harrison on the propensity for Deans to overreach to keep faculty due to prospect theory–that is the aversion to lose something a person already has-often at a cost greater than the professor is worth.

Most of the time when I hear of counter offers I think about prospect theory — what is this obsession deans have with keeping people from leaving. So often their efforts are misguided. When it comes to faculty there are good loses and very few good keeps that are also controllable.

Offers from other schools fall into three categories; Ones the Dean cannot possibly keep the professor from taking, those that the person would not take even if the dean did nothing, and those in which the dean’s actions may make a difference.