PhD-Summer School "Advances in Behavioral Ethics“ co-organized by Carmen Tanner

Attendees of the PhD-Summer School „Advances in Behavioral Ethics“, held by the Zeppelin University Graduate School | ZUGS, considered research questions arising at the interface between psychology, economy, finance and ethics. The Summer School was hosted and academically guided by Professor Dr Carmen Tanner and Professor Dr Anja Achtziger. Participants from different countries not only discussed the current state of research on behavioural ethics, but also discussed their own work with experts in order to further develop their research profile.
What individual and structural factors affect the development of questionable business practices on organisations? Which of them are determinants for honesty? How can managers and employees be manoeuvred towards unethical behaviour without noticing it? Is a good character sufficient for ethically correct behaviour? What are „good” moral decisions anyway? What role does self-management play in controlling selfish behavioural impulses? And how can these and other findings be transferred to the perspectives of taxpayers, to enterprise, to society as a whole or to financial markets?
These and other questions around the interface between psychology, economics, finance and ethics were intensely scrutinized. Seminars were supplemented by keynote lectures by Professor Erich Kirchler (University of Vienna), Professor Alexander Wagner (University of Zürich) and Professor Josef Wieland (ZU). In addition to ZU’s own doctoral students, the PhD summer school was attended by academics from universities in Poland, Italy, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland.
The PhD Summer School is organised every year by the ZUGS and has taken place in its current form four times so far. Varying inter-disciplinary topics, spanning economics, culture and politics, are intended to provide the visiting doctoral and post-doctoral scholars with insight into ZU’s research activities and enable vibrant exchange of ideas on their own projects and those of their peers in the inspiring atmosphere at Lake Constance.