Interview with Ann Tenbrunsel, the David E. Gallo Professor of Business Ethics at the Mendoza School of Business at the University of Notre Dame, and co-author of Blindspots

What are your main areas of research? 

My work has focused on why individuals behave in ways that deviate from their values and are not aware that they are doing so. Within that domain, I have focused on how the situation leads to “ethical fading” in which people do not realize they are in fact presented with an ethical decision. If you don’t realize you are faced with an ethical dilemma, then your ethical values and principles wont be part of the decision process. I have examined individual level factors– temptation, forecasting errors, construal level, moral self-image and power– as well as organizational level factors– business framing, sanctions,perceived retaliation, organizational cultures of justice and respect, formal and informal communications– that may influence unethical behavior.