Elianne van Steenbergen, Professor by Special Appointment of ‘Psychology of Supervision’

Together, Utrecht University and the Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (Autoriteit Financiële Markten - AFM) are introducing the ‘Psychology of Supervision’ chair. This chair will translate insight from social and organisational psychology into practical issues related to supervision. The supervisory practice in turn will enrich the quality of scientific research. Elianne van Steenbergen will hold the new chair.

The chair stems from a successful collaboration between the university and the AFM. Examples of this include the research on blind spots in decision-making, and the research into how companies deal with mistakes. 

Risky behaviour

Traditionally, supervision has been examined from a legal or economic perspective. Insight from behavioural science will allow the AFM and other supervisory bodies to further develop or update their methods. The AFM has been conducting research into behaviour and culture at financial institutions since 2016, offering better insight into the factors that hinder or encourage these institutions to put the customer's or public interest first. This creates the opportunity, for example, to spot risky behaviour before it has caused damage. 

Professor by Special Appointment

Elianne van Steenbergen has been named Professor by Special Appointment of Psychology of Supervision for a period of five years. She will give her inaugural speech, ‘The Psychology of Supervision’, at the end of 2020. Van Steenbergen is affiliated with Naomi Ellemers’ Organisational Behaviour research group at the university. Van Steenbergen has been working part-time at AFM as a senior supervisor in the behaviour and culture team at the Expertise Centre since 2016.