133: Ann Tenbrunsel | No One Is Immune from Behaving Unethically

Ann Tenbrunsel is a business ethics professor at the University of Notre Dame. Her research examines why employees, leaders and students behave unethically, despite their best intentions to behave ethically. Ann is the author, co-author, or co-editor of six books on this topic—including Blind Spots (with Max Bazerman), Behavioral Ethics (with David De Cremer), Codes of Conduct and (with David Messick)—and she has also published 50 research articles and chapters.

Her research has been covered in the New York Times, NBC, ABC, Sports Illustrated, ESPN, US News and World Report, the Associated Press, The Guardian, Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Huffington Post, Washington Post, NPR, and in blogs for Psychology Today and Freakonomics.

Ann was also my advisor when I was a postdoc at Notre Dame, and she is, in a word, awesome.

In this episode we discuss the following:

• No one is immune from behaving unethically. And sadly, over and again we tend to overrate our own ethics.
• When facing an ethical dilemma, we predict we’ll behave ethically, and after making our decision we recollect that we’ve behaved ethically. But at the time of decision, we all too often feel unexpected pressure, make some excuse, adopt some rationalization, and behave unethically.
• We’re in a constant battle with our want self and our should self. And all too often we give into our wants, rather than standing by our shoulds.
• To improve our ethics, we need good sleep, continued education, and practice. Just as we wouldn’t expect to perform well in a meeting without preparing, we shouldn’t expect to perform well in an ethical dilemma if we haven’t prepared.
• Study ethics. Take a class, read Ann’s book, learn about the ways that power, pressure, and circumstances can lead us to unethical behavior. And then check your ethics with other people, conduct a pre-mortem, and let your “should-self” win.

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Ann's Book Blind Spots: https://amzn.to/4cVxgSH

Website: https://mendoza.nd.edu/mendoza-directory/profile/ann-tenbrunsel/

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