Exploring ethical judgment change in business ethics education: an essay of modelization through the Sensemaking perspective

The objective of this research is to study how EJ changes in the context of a BE course. We adopted an interpretive approach to conduct a longitudinal qualitative study with four cohorts of professionals, following an executive training program, at a French university. They were asked to describe an ethical problem that they had encountered. This report was to be done twice, once at the beginning of the BE course, and once at the end of the course, when they were asked to reconsider this same problem. We thus collected the accounts of 66 people on two occasions, separated by three months, and compared the pre-course and post-course accounts for each professional. This design enabled us to analyse respondents' change of EJ from the beginning to the end of the BE course. From this qualitative inductive research, we developed a model based on a sensemaking perspective, that describes how EJ changes after a BE course. It reveals four different mechanisms through which EJ changes: complexifying, prioritizing, conceptualizing and contextualizing. It also identicates the factors that influence this change of EJ, be they linked to the course or not. Our research provides enriched explanations of EJ change in the context of a BE course, thus contributing to extending the understanding of the impact of BE education on EJ. We also contribute to theory by proposing a model of EJ change, through the concept of "sense-remaking". Besides its theoretical contribution to the field of sensemaking and ethical education, our research has practical implications for managers' ethical decision-making as well as for the teaching of BE.