Date of Award

Fall 12-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Program/Concentration

Workforce and Organizational Development

Committee Director

Philip A. Reed

Committee Member

Helen Crompton

Committee Member

Ginger S. Watson

Abstract

The demand for corporations to practice more ethically responsible conduct and decision making is growing with every news report of another corporate scandal, lawsuit, fine, or high-visibility C-suite firing. To develop an ethical workplace culture, organizations should implement a comprehensive ethics program that fosters and encourages ethical decision making, especially among current and future leaders. However, there is little research and few guidelines for how ethics program administrators should design corporate ethics training to effectively practice and master the skill of ethical decision-making in efforts to continually grow a more ethical work environment. This study aims to identify corporate ethics training trends and best practices utilized today to better understand gaps and areas for future research.

This study consists of a literature review as well as a systematic review. The literature review focuses on industry’s best practices, insight from corporate ethics surveys, and current trends and issues concerning corporate ethics. The findings of the systematic review examine research published between 2020 and 2025 according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. A priori coding demonstrated that ethics training is a globally studied topic with the majority of research conducted in Asia, Europe, and North America. Research activity remained consistent throughout the five-year period with a decline in 2022 and a gradual increase through 2025, most likely residual impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. About half of the studies were conducted within higher education business ethics schools compared to actual corporate environments. This disparity emphasizes a research gap between academic environments and actual corporate environments.

Grounded theory coding of training strategies resulted in five categories: Collaborative Learning, Hybrid Modalities, Immersive Virtual Reality, Integration of Philosophy, or no training strategy identified. Collaborative Learning and Immersive Virtual Reality categories dominated the results, emphasizing role-play, group discussion, serious games, and virtual simulations. Hybrid Modalities and Integration of Philosophy demonstrated unique approaches emphasizing self-reflection with group discussion. Studies not emphasizing specific training strategies instead gave insight into ethics program contextual influences such as leadership and organizational culture. Discussion of these findings and recommendations for future research conclude the study.

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DOI

10.25777/69ax-k974

ISBN

9798276040134

ORCID

0009-0008-9788-0564

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