Biography
Dr. Tessa Coffeng is an Assistant Professor at the Center for Accounting, Auditing & Control. Her work contributes to organizational psychology research within the accounting profession in the broadest sense. She is also involved in developing education for accountancy programs, including topics such as moral judgment and ethical decision-making.
Coffeng works four days a week as a Senior Supervisor of Behavior & Culture at the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) and one day a week at Nyenrode Business University.
She was trained as a social and organizational psychologist. In 2016, she began working as a supervisor at the AFM (Behavior & Culture team) and as a PhD candidate at Utrecht University (Department of Organizational Behavior). In 2022, Coffeng defended her PhD dissertation on cognitive biases in supervision, titled Bias in Supervision: A Social Psychological Perspective on Regulatory Decision-Making. Her research has primarily been published in interdisciplinary journals in the fields of regulation and governance, such as Regulation & Governance and Management Decision.
Until 2026, Coffeng has remained affiliated with Utrecht University as a researcher, where she has served as a co-supervisor for PhD candidates, initiated new research collaborations, and regularly delivered lectures for supervisory organizations and professional associations for internal and external supervisors.
Coffeng has also served for several years as a member of the editorial board of the Tijdschrift voor Toezicht (Journal for Supervision). In addition, she was a member of the Impact Committee of the Kurt Lewin Institute, a Dutch research and training institute for PhD candidates in social psychology.
Working at the intersection of research and practice, Coffeng continuously seeks relevant questions from professional practice as inspiration for innovative research. At Nyenrode, her work focuses particularly on the accounting profession.
Through her roles as supervisor, researcher, and lecturer, Coffeng is also committed to strengthening the quality of supervision. Her mission is to enhance the professional expertise of supervisors, enabling them to carry out their core responsibilities—centered on information processing and judgment—effectively.
International activities
For research on leadership within supervisory organizations, Coffeng has collaborated with researchers from the University of Queensland (Centre for Business and Organisational Psychology) in Australia.
Through her work at the AFM, she contributes to national and international training programs for supervisors in the financial sector and beyond.
From 2023 to 2024, she was seconded from the AFM to the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) in Paris, where she contributed to strengthening convergence in capital markets supervision.
Relevant publications
- Ishwardat, S. R., Van Steenbergen, E. F., Coffeng, T., & Ellemers, N. (2024). Stimulating regulatory compliance and ethical behavior of organizations: a review. Business Ethics and Leadership, 8(3), 151-172. https://doi.org/10.61093/bel.8(3).151-172.2024
- Coffeng, T., Van Steenbergen, E. F., De Vries, F., Steffens, N. K., & Ellemers, N. (2023). Reflective and decisive supervision: the role of participative leadership and team climate in joint decision-making. Regulation & Governance, 17(1), 290-309. https://doi.org/10.1111/rego.12449
- Coffeng, T., & Van Steenbergen, E. F. (2022). Denkfouten voorkomen: de sleutelrol van leiders in toezicht en bestuur. In M. Lückerath-Rovers, H. van Ees, M. Kaptein, & I. Wuisman (Eds.), Jaarboek Corporate Governance 2022/2023 (pp. 43-57). Wolters Kluwer Nederland B.V. https://www.jaarboekcorporategovernance.nl/?p=859
- Coffeng, T. (2022). Bias in supervision: a social psychological perspective on regulatory decision-making (Doctoral thesis). Utrecht University. https://doi.org/10.33540/1062
- Coffeng, T., Van Steenbergen, E. F., De Vries, F., & Ellemers, N. (2021). ‘Denkfouten, die heb ik niet’: aandacht voor de blinde vlek van toezichthouders. Tijdschrift voor Toezicht, 2021(4), 161-174. https://doi.org/10.5553/TvT/187987052021012004002
- Coffeng, T., Van Steenbergen, E. F., De Vries, F., & Ellemers, N. (2021). Quality of group decisions by board members: a hidden-profile experiment. Management Decision, 59(13), 38-55. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-07-2020-0893
- Van Steenbergen, E. F., Van Dijk, D., Christensen, C. A., Coffeng, T., & Ellemers, N. (2020). LEARN to build an error management culture. Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance, 28(1), 57-73. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFRC-12-2018-0156