The effect of ethics education on managerial competencies in the executive education context: a qualitative vignette study

Abstract

The role of ethics education in developing vital managerial competencies beyond ethical awareness and reasoning abilities has been an understudied issue. This qualitative vignette study empirically investigates how training in normative ethics influences strategic decision-making competencies, conceptualized through the lens of dynamic managerial capabilities, among executives in an executive education context. The study involved presenting two parallel vignettes depicting ethically-charged strategic decisions to executives before and after completing normative ethics courses with no intention to promote managerial competencies. Participants’ responses were analyzed and categorized in terms of changes in their ability to sense opportunities and threats, shape organizational responses, seize opportunities, and reconfigure capabilities for continuous renewal and transformation. The results indicate that ethics education contributed to an overall increase in strategic competencies, particularly in seizing and reconfiguring capabilities, while the results for sensing and shaping are more mixed. Herewith, we provide some empirical evidence that ethics education has the potential to enhance strategic decision-making competencies, conceptualized as dynamic management capabilities. Overall, this study counters the narrow perspective that ethics training only develops ethical awareness. It demonstrates how ethics can be an integral part of management education aimed at holistically developing strategic leadership competencies to meet the organizational challenges of the 21st century. Implications for ethically grounded management curricula and suggestions for future research are discussed.