Associate Professor Tyler Okimoto
Tyler Okimoto
Associate Professor in Management | Discipline Leader - Management
  • PhD, Social/Org Psychology (New York University)
  • MA, I/I Psychology (New York University)
  • BA, Psychology (University of California Santa Barbara)
Ph: 
+61 7 334 68043

t.okimoto@business.uq.edu.au

Room 331, Colin Clark Building, St. Lucia Campus

    UQ Researchers

    TYLER G. OKIMOTO is an Associate Professor in Management in the UQ Business School where he currently serves as Management Discipline Leader, and teaches courses on leadership, human resources, conflict/negotiation, and decision-making in the Undergraduate, MBA, and Executive levels. Prior to joining UQ in 2011, he received his Ph.D. in Social and Organisational Psychology from New York University in 2005, and worked as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the School of Psychology at Flinders University in Australia, and in the School of Management at Yale University. Dr. Okimoto's research investigates biases in organisational and ethical decision-making, particularly how those biases contribute to discrimination, unethical practices, injustice, and conflict within and between groups. In 2012 he was awarded the Early Career Researcher Award from the International Society for Justice Research for his contributions to the understanding of conflict and justice repair.

    Research interests

    Conferral of Status and Legitimacy to Women in Leadership
    Women are still heavily under-represented in the highest positions of power and influence. Part of this glass ceiling effect is driven by persisting gender stereotypes, stereotypes leading observers to assume that a woman lacks the agentic, instrumental attributes often associated with leadership (e.g., independence, assertiveness, dominance). But even once a female leader proves her competence, she is often punished for failing to exhibit feminine attributes (e.g., warmth, kindness, sensitivity). Thus, while a man’s legitimacy as a leader depends on his effectiveness, a women's legitimacy requires both effectiveness and social appeal. How can women effectively manage the balance between perceptions of warmth and competence? Why is there such a strong moral-affective reaction against female leaders? What can organisations do to minimize the prevalence of stereotype-driven bias in their HRM practices?
    Conflict Management/Justice Restoration
    The experience of injustice and unfairness is inevitable in social, community, and organisational domains. However, it is often quite difficult to address such violations, partly because people have starkly different ideas about what is required to do “justice” (e.g., compensation, punishment, forgiveness, apologies, revenge, restorative conferencing). Why and under what conditions do people prefer one response over another? How can we predict when different responses will be deemed acceptable and legitimate by victims, offenders, and third-party observers? And what can organisational decision-makers do to minimize the divergence in opinions about justice?
    Ethical Decision-Making in Leadership
    Despite the apparent prevalence of greed and deception by organisational and political leaders, most people actually have both a keen understanding of what constitutes a fair and ethically appropriate decision and the desire to act in a fair/ethical manner. But even with both the knowledge and motivation, people still make objectively unethical decisions. In practice, it is difficult to remain vigilant in supressing the non-conscious biases that colour our decisions, biases that derive from cultural stereotypes, ideologies, and intergroup dynamics. How do these unintended biases undermine our attempts to behave fairly and ethically? What can we do to avoid these decision-making pitfalls, errors that ultimately undermine our ability to make effective and socially responsible decisions?
    Inter- and Intra-group Dynamics/Organisational Identification
    The beliefs, attitudes, and motivation of employees in organisations are affected by their level of organisational identification – the extent to which they define themselves as members of the collective group. How does identification affect reactions to threats, both intragroup (from within the organisation; e.g., deviance, betrayal, disrespect) and intergroup (e.g., competition, defamation)? What are the positive and negative consequences of such threats for the effectiveness of an organisation?

    Publications

    View full publications list

    Memberships

    • Academy of Management
    • Society for Personality and Social Psychology
    • Society of Australasian Social Psychologists
    • International Society for Justice Research
    • Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology
    • Association for Psychological Science

    Distinctions

    2012 Early Career Contribution Award from the International Society for Justice Research
    2011 Outstanding Author Contribution Award, Emerald Publishing
    2010 Featured review in the American Association of University Women 2010 report: Why so few? Women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (pp.81-87).
    2006 Douglas and Katherine Fryer Thesis Fellowship in Organizational Psychology

    Major research grants

    Title Agency Year Amount
    Identifying and resolving challenges to the effectiveness of collective apologies (with Associate Professor Michael Wenzel & Professor Matthew Hornsey) ARC Discovery 2013 Undisclosed
    Ingroup bias in the enactment of fairness in organisations UQ New Staff Start Up Grant 2012 Undisclosed
    Why so few women in upper management? Impression management, social facilitation, and the enactment of stereotypical behaviour UQ Early Career Research Grant 2012 Undisclosed