Chair of Economic Psychology and Leadership Ethics
Profile
Carmen Tanner conducts research in the fields of Ethical Decision Making and Behavioral Business Ethics. She has worked at universities in Bern, Fribourg, and Zurich, and at Northwestern University in Evanston, USA, among others. From 2004 until 2010 she held a professorship in the Department of Psychology at the University of Zurich. She is the Director of the "Center for Responsibility in Finance" (CRF) established in 2011 within the Department of Banking and Finance at the University of Zurich.
In January 2015, Carmen Tanner took up the Chair of Business Psychology and Leadership Ethics at Zeppelin University’s "Leadership Excellence Institute Zeppelin | LEIZ. Her work focuses upon research, teaching, and continuing education on the area of business management. Carmen Tanner is also Vice Director of LEIZ.
Introduction to the Chair Economic Psychology and Leadership Ethics
Behavioral business ethics – What makes ethical decision-making harder or easier Questionable business practices of companies and leaders, as well as misconduct by employees at the workplace, can often have far-reaching repercussions and lead to high financial costs, as well as the loss of trust and reputation. An urgent question for both business and academic research is, therefore, what circumstances influence the occurrence of unethical behavior. Behavioral business ethics is a relatively new and promising line of research where psychologists, economists, and ethicists work together to better understand which personal and situational factors make unethical behavior easier or more difficult. Carmen Tanner’s Chair at the LEIZ is a platform for such questions and related empirical studies.
Introduction to the Chair Economic Psychology and Leadership Ethics
Corporate culture The development of unethical business practices is not only a question of individual factors but also depends on the value- and corporate culture of an organization. Under corporate culture we subsume the prevailing structures, norms, values and behaviors of a business. These are reinforced for example by role models, goal settings and even subtle contextual factors (such as pictures, symbols, focus on money). Often, the unwritten rather than the made explicit values and principles of a Code of Ethics are what shape a business culture. Thus, the focus is on the specification and the role of compliance and integrity dimensions and how these factors impact on the development of misconduct within organizations. We are currently developing and testing an instrument that measures relevant indicators of an ethical and responsible business culture. The goal is to frequently conduct a monitoring via the Corporate Ethical Culture Scale, collecting data on business culture periodically and on a large scale for the interested public.
Moral intelligence – Self-navigation system and one’s own values In research and practice, social and emotional intelligence have received a great deal of attention in recent years as important prerequisites for successful interaction in business and elsewhere. Since the financial and economic crisis, moral intelligence has been seen as a new challenge. At the LEIZ Chair of Business Psychology and Leadership Ethics, we conduct research into motivational as well as perception-, decision-making- and acting-related conditions for moral intelligence. On the other hand, work at the Chair will contribute to measuring and promoting moral competencies through measuring devices and innovative tools.
The enigma of honesty – A question of costs or values? Questions and discussions on the topic of (dis)honesty in the business and financial context have been popular again for quite some time. The economic and financial crisis, numerous fraud scandals at large companies (Enron, Worldcom, VW), banks (Libor scandal, currency manipulation) or people (Madoff, Adoboli) have contributed to this. But why do people behave honestly or dishonestly? That is a question we have been dealing with for many years in interdisciplinary research projects (Psychology, Economy & Finance, Ethics). The interactions between situational and motivational determinants of honesty are examined on the basis of experimental studies.
Gibson, Rajna / Tanner, Carmen / Wagner, Alexander F.: The choice of honesty: An experiment regarding heterogeneous responses to situational social norms, 2014, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4678
Gibson, Rajna / Tanner, Carmen / Wagner, Alexander F.: Preferences for truthfulness: Heterogeneity among and within individuals, 2011, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4679
Tanner, Carmen / Hausmann, Daniel: Wie wertvoll ist das Bankgeheimnis für Schweizerinnen und Schweizer? (KSPZ-Forschungsbericht Nr. 1), 2009, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4683
Merz, Claudia / Tanner, Carmen: Weitere Befunde zur Validierung der Geschützte Werte Skala (GWS) (KSPZ-Forschungsbericht Nr. 2), 2009, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4684
Arnold, S. / Tanner, Carmen / Wölfing Kast, Sybille: Die Wirkung ausgewählter Kontextbedingungen auf das ökologisch nachhaltige Einkaufsverhalten: Resultate einer Tagebuchstudie, 1999, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4686
Tanner, Carmen / Wölfing Kast, Sybille / Arnold, S.: Typisierung von Konsumenten und Konsumentinnen aufgrund personaler und verhaltensbezogener Unterschiede, 1999, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4687
Wölfing Kast, Sybille / Tanner, Carmen / Arnold, S.: Die Wahrnehmung von handlungsrelevanten Infor¬mationen für ein ökologisch nachhaltiges Einkaufsverhalten durch verschiedene Konsumtypen, 1999, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4688
Tanner, Carmen / Wölfing Kast, Sybille / Arnold, S. / Sätteli, Karin: Internale und externale Restriktionen und Ressourcen des ökologisch nachhaltigen Lebensmitteleinkaufs, 1998, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4689
Wölfing Kast, Sybille / Tanner, Carmen / Arnold, S. / Sätteli, Karin: Die Vermittlung handlungsrelevanter Informationen für den ökologisch nachhaltigen Lebensmitteleinkauf, 1998, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4690
Wölfing Kast, Sybille / Tanner, Carmen: Wie werden Informationen zum ökologisch nachhaltigen Lebens-mitteleinkauf sinnvoll vermittelt?, 1997, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4681
Arnold, S. / Tanner, Carmen / Jaeggi, C. / Foppa, Klaus: Fragebogen zur Erfassung von Umweltein¬stellungen und Umweltverhalten: Itemanalyse und deskriptive Angaben, 1995, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4682
Tanner, Carmen: Wahrnehmung der Konsequenzen eigenen Tuns als Voraussetzung ökologischen Handelns. Lizentiatsarbeit, 1991, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4693
ArtikelReview
Katsarov, Johannes / Christen, Markus / Schmocker, David / Tanner, Carmen / Mauerhofer, Ralf: Training moral sensitivity through video games: A review of suitable game mechanisms, 2019, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/9519
Tanner, Carmen / Gangl, Katharina / Witt, Nicole: The German Ethical Culture Scale (GECS): Development and first construct, 2019, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/9520
Schmocker, David / Tanner, Carmen / Katsarov, Johannes / Christen, Markus: An Advanced Measure of Moral Sensitivity in Business, 2019, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/9531
Katsarov, Johannes / Christen, Markus / Mauerhofer, Ralf / Schmocker, David / Tanner, Carmen: Training Moral Sensitivity Through Video Games: A Review of Suitable Game Mechanisms, 2017, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/6631
Dogan, Azade / Morishima, Yosuke / Heise, Felix / Tanner, Carmen / Gibson, Rajna: Prefrontal connections express individual differences in intrinsic resistance to trading off honesty values against economic benefits, 2016, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/6282
Christen, Markus / Ineichen, Christian / Tanner, Carmen: «Moralische Intelligenz» in der medizinischen Praxis: Zur Nutzung moralpsychologischer Konstrukte und Messverfahren in klinischer Diagnostik und Weiterbildung, 2016, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/6367
Christen, Markus / Narvaez, Darcia / Tanner, Carmen / Ott, Thomas: Using thesauruses as a heuristics for mapping values, 2016, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/6369
Christen, Markus / Ineichen, Christian / Tanner, Carmen: How “moral” are the principles of biomedical ethics? – a cross-domain evaluation of the common morality hypothesis, 2014, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4638
Stöckli, Peter Lucas / Tanner, Carmen: Are integrative or distributive outcomes more satisfactory? The effects of interest-based versus value-based issues on negotiator satisfaction: Negotiator satisfaction, 2014, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4639
Gibson, Rajna / Tanner, Carmen / Wagner, Alexander F.: Preferences for Truthfulness: Heterogeneity among and within Individuals, 2013, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4641
Tanner, Carmen / Brügger, Adrian / van Schie, Susan / Lebherz, Carmen: Actions Speak Louder Than Words: The Benefits of Ethical Behaviors of Leaders, 2010, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4642
Kühberger, Anton / Tanner, Carmen: Risky choice framing: Task versions and a comparison of prospect theory and fuzzy-trace theory, 2009, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4643
Tanner, Carmen / Ryf, Bettina / Hanselmann, Martin: Geschützte Werte Skala (GWS): Konstruktion und Validierung eines Messinstrumentes, 2009, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4647
Tanner, Carmen: Context Effects in Environmental Judgments: Assimilation and Contrast Effects in Separate and Joint Evaluation Modes, 2008, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4648
Tanner, Carmen / Medin, Douglas L. / Iliev, Rumen: Influence of deontological versus consequentialist orientations on act choices and framing effects: when principles are more important than consequences, 2008, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4649
Hanselmann, Martin / Tanner, Carmen: Taboos and conflicts in decision making: Sacred values, decision difficulty and emotions, 2008, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4650
Tanner, Carmen: Wenn Konsumentinnen und Konsumenten die Umweltverträglichkeit von Lebensmitteln beurteilen – Ergebnisse experimenteller Studien Wenn Konsumentinnen und Konsumenten die Umweltverträglichkeit von Lebensmitteln beurteilen – Ergebnisse experimenteller Studien, 2006, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4651
Tanner, Carmen / Jungbluth, Niels: Evidence for the coincidence effect in environmental judgments: Why isn't it easy to correctly identify environmentally friendly food products?, 2003, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4655
Tanner, Carmen / Wölfing Kast, Sybille: Promoting sustainable consumption: Determinants of green purchases by Swiss consumers: Promoting Sustainable Consumption, 2003, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4656
Tanner, Carmen / Wölfing Kast, Sybille: Restriktionen und Ressourcen nachhaltiger Einkaufsgewohn¬heiten: Segmentierung Schweizer Konsumenten und Konsumentinnen, 2002, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4657
Tanner, Carmen / Berkowitsch, Nicolas / Gibson, Rajna / Wagner, Alexander F.: Sacred values and ethical decision making, 2010, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4670
Wölfing Kast, Sybille / Tanner, Carmen: Von Antiökologen und Musterökologen: Optionen und Restriktionen des ökologischen Lebensmitteleinkaufs, 2002, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4675
Christen, Markus / Fischer, Johannes / Huppenbauer, Markus / Tanner, Carmen / van Schaik, Carel: Empirically informed ethics: Morality between facts and norms, 2013, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4665
Christen, Markus / Thouvenin, Florent / Hauser, Christian / Tanner, Carmen: Big Data Ethics Recommendations for the Insurance Industry. A Consolidation Report outlining the results of the NRP 75 project: "Between Solidarity and Personalisation - Dealing with Ethical and Legal Big Data Challenges in the Insurance Industry, 2019, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/9708
Tanner, Carmen / Kaiser, Florian G. / Wölfing Kast, Sybille: Contextual Conditions of Ecological Consumerism: A Food-Purchasing Survey, 2004, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4652
Foppa, Klaus / Tanner, Carmen / Jaeggi, C. / Arnold, S.: Umweltverantwortliches Handeln: Was hin¬dert uns daran zu tun, was wir tun müssten?, 1995, https://zu.ub.uni-freiburg.de/data/4663