Have you ever wondered if you’re being fair and consistent when you evaluate your own actions versus the actions of others from an ethical standpoint? It turns out that we’re often not, but this inconsistency isn’t necessarily because we’re trying to be self-serving. Instead, there are fundamental differences in our access to information related to ourselves versus others, such as the reasons underlying a certain behavior, or calculations of the behavior’s potential costs and benefits. These informational differences can create cognitive distortions in how we address four core questions – regarding the unethicality, liability, insolvency, and incompensability of behavior – and can help explain why we sometimes seem like ethical hypocrites. In this episode, Dr. Peter Kim from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California teaches us how to recognize, understand, and respond most effectively to these four questions and how they influence our behaviors, our sense of morality, and our judgments of ourselves and others. Dr. Kim provides research-based insights and helpful practical tips for how we can recognize and use these important principles of ethical accounting in our daily lives.

Dr. Peter Kim bio:

Dr. Peter Kim is a Professor of Management and Organization at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. Dr. Kim’s research focuses on the dynamics of social misperception and its implications for negotiations, work groups, and dispute resolution. His research has been published in numerous scholarly journals, received ten national and international awards, and been featured by the New York Times, Washington Post, and National Public Radio. He serves as a Senior Editor for Organization Science journal, as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Trust Research, and on the editorial boards of the Academy of Management Review and Negotiation and Conflict Management Research. He is a past Associate Editor for the Academy of Management Review and past Chair of the Academy of Management’s Conflict Management Division. He has also just completed his first mass-market book that will be published by MacMillan on August 15, 2023 called, “How Trust Works: The Science of How Relationships are Built, Broken, and Repaired.” It is already available for pre-order from most bookstores.

Articles referenced in the episode:

• Kim, P. H., Wiltermuth, S. S., & Newman, D. T. (2021). A theory of ethical accounting and its implications for hypocrisy in organizations. Academy of Management Review, 46(1), 172-191. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2018.0161
• Kim, P. H., Ployhart, R. E., & Gibson, C. B. (2018). Editors’ comments: Is organizational behavior overtheorized?. Academy of Management Review, 43(4), 541-545. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2018.0233