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James T. Carter
Assistant Professor, Organizational Behavior
Industrial and Labor Relations School, Cornell University
RESEARCH & INTERESTS
I am currently undertaking three lines of distinct, yet related research:
The Language of Diversity & Race
I explore how the way people talk about diversity interacts with their behavior to determine reactions to this language. To explore the role of language, I look to diversity statements, allyship testaments, and group labels and contextualize these statements in historical patterns of behavior. My approach is both multi-method and interdisciplinary in service of uncovering how different contexts and situations shape divergent outcomes for marginalized versus non-marginalized people
Examining how Status Processes Create Biases and Inequality
I explore how status reproduces or further facilitates biases and inequities. Using longitudinal, qualitative, and experimental methods, I explore how an actor's experience with social hierarchy differentially shapes their organizational and interpersonal outcomes.
For example, I investigate how being unfairly evaluated shapes the evaluations one makes, how status hierarchies are sustained and affirmed through organizational interactions and the use of stigmatizing labels, and how having low-status drives behavior towards the self and others differently.
To understand the complex barriers marginalized employees face, I examine how entrepreneurs from stigmatized or underrepresented backgrounds face systematic barriers in entrepreneurial venturing.
In one project, I develop a theoretical model that integrates inclusion with entrepreneurial ecosystems to articulate the processes that facilitate or impede the inclusion of Black (and other marginalized) entrepreneurs. In the second, I take a multi-method approach to explore how Black entrepreneurs navigate their identities.
Experiences of Black Entrepreneurs
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