James T Carter
· Assistant ProfessorVerifiedCornell University · Industrial and Labor Relations
Active 1908–2024
About
James T Carter is an assistant professor of organizational behavior at the ILR School, Cornell University. His research examines diversity and discrimination in organizations, focusing on uncovering the psychological and contextual factors that pose barriers and offer pathways to improving diversity and inclusion in organizational settings. Carter's work has been featured in outlets such as Harvard Business Review and Fast Company, where he discusses topics including corporate LGBTQ+ allyship and the impact of social status on authenticity in the workplace. He received his undergraduate degree in English & Psychology from Rice University and earned his PhD from Columbia Business School. His academic and research contributions aim to deepen understanding of organizational dynamics related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Research topics
- Computer Science
- Environmental science
Selected publications
Academy of Management Proceedings · 2024 · 1 citations
- Computer Science
- Computer Science
- Environmental science
In any evaluation system, the evaluator's purpose is to grant recognition or status to the highest quality candidates. However, these systems are imperfect; top performers may not be recognized and thus be underrecognized, and low performers may receive unwarranted recognition and be overrecognized. An important feature of many evaluation systems is that people alternate between being candidates and being evaluators. We examine how experiencing misrecognition as a candidate affects how people subsequently evaluate others within such systems. Building on theories of evaluations, role fulfillment, and equity, we argue that being underrecognized or overrecognized as candidates will affect how individuals later evaluate others. Across three studies—a natural field experiment with investment professionals, and two preregistered, multistage experiments, we find that underrecognized evaluators are less likely to grant rewards—even to the highest performing candidates—than similarly performing but correctly recognized evaluators. In contrast, overrecognized evaluators are more likely to grant recognition—even to the lowest performing candidates—than similarly performing but correctly recognized evaluators. Importantly, we provide evidence that underrecognized evaluator behavior is explained by perceptions that their experience was unfair while overrecognized evaluator behavior is shaped by role fulfillment concerns. Thus, in evaluation processes where people oscillate between the evaluated and the evaluator, we show how and why seemingly innocuous initial inefficiencies are reproduced.
Frequent coauthors
- 106 shared
Shari Goldfarb
- 79 shared
Joan L. Walker
US Forest Service
- 73 shared
Maura N. Dickler
- 66 shared
Joanne Frankel Kelvin
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
- 66 shared
Catherine Benedict
Cancer Prevention Institute of California
- 65 shared
Ariela Noy
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
- 65 shared
C. Bethan Powell
University of California, San Francisco
- 65 shared
Bridgette Thom
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Awards & honors
- Groat and Alpern Awards
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