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Do company ethics training programs make a difference? An empirical analysis

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Abstract

The authors analyze results of a survey of members of the Columbia University Graduate School of Business classes of 1953–1987 in order to assess the potential effectiveness of firms' ethics training programs. Results suggest that such training has a positive effect, but that relatively few firms provide such programs (about one-third of the respondents worked for firms with such programs). Although the sample is not representative of American employees and managers generally, the results suggest that it may be worthwhile for firms to provide formal ethics training to their employees.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept. of Management and Organizations, College of Business Administration, University of Iowa, 52242, Iowa City, IO, USA

    John Thomas Delaney & Donna Sockell

  2. Institute of Management and Labor Relations, Rutgers, State University of New Jersey, 08903, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    John Thomas Delaney & Donna Sockell

Authors
  1. John Thomas Delaney
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  2. Donna Sockell
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Additional information

John Delaney is Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at The University of Iowa. His research on ethics in business has been published in Across the Board and Iowa Business. As part of an ongoing study, he is collecting examples of ethical dilemmas that have been confronted by managers in recent years.

Donna Sockell is Director of Credit Programs and Professor of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. In addition to her research on ethics in the workplace, she has designed and taught ethics programs for several corporations and commodities exchanges. Currently, she is gathering information on how firms' ethical practices affect employees.

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Delaney, J.T., Sockell, D. Do company ethics training programs make a difference? An empirical analysis. J Bus Ethics 11, 719–727 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01686353

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