Kieran O'Connor

Professor O’Connor specializes in organizational behavior. In particular, his work explores the social psychological processes that influence individuals’ decision making in organizations and their judgments of others. One line of his work explores what leads some people to rebel against social norms in order to do the right thing and, in turn, why other individuals might derogate such honorable behavior. A second stream of research investigates how people form impressions of organizations and judge individuals within them. Examples include why some employees receive a harsher penalty when they behave inconsistently with their organization’s values (e.g., hypocrisy by association) and what makes some organizations seem more authentic than others. His work has been published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes; Group Processes and Intergroup Relations; and Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Professor O’Connor teaches organizational behavior in the undergraduate Integrated Core Experience. He has also taught courses on behavioral decision making, negotiation, and conflict management in the B.S. and M.S. in Accounting Programs, as well as topics in teamwork, group dynamics, and diversity in the M.S. in Commerce Program. He is a graduate of the Stanford Graduate School of Business and a former graduate fellow at the Stanford Center on International Conflict and Negotiation. He previously developed and taught a course on decision making at Stanford University and lectured in the Stanford Law School and Public Policy program.