Sense-Remaking: Unpacking Ethical Judgment Change in a Business Ethics Course

Loréa Baïada-Hirèche; Lionel Garreau; Jean Pasquero

doi:10.37725/mgmt.2024.8445

Loréa Baïada-Hirèche Institut Mines-Télécom Business School, Université Paris-Saclay, LITEM, 91025, Evry-Courcouronnes, France, chercheure associée à Dauphine Recherches en Managementl
Lionel Garreau Université Paris Dauphine – PSL, DRM (UMR 7088), Place du Maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny Paris, France
Jean Pasquero Département de Stratégie et Responsabilité sociale et environnementale, École des sciences de la gestion, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal (Québec), Canada

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37725/mgmt.2024.8445

Keywords: Ethical judgment, Sensemaking, Business ethics course, Action research

Abstract

While business ethics (BE) courses have increasingly formed part of business school curricula, we still do not know much about how these courses can change students’ capacity to deal with ethical issues. Drawing on a sensemaking perspective, we conducted an action research study with 66 business professionals enrolled in an executive training program at a French university. The aim was to investigate the processes underlying ethical judgment (EJ) change through a BE course. Participants were invited to pick a significant ethical issue they had personally experienced at work. They were then asked to make sense of it, in writing, at the beginning and at the end of the course, 3 months later. In comparing pre-course and post-course judgments, we concluded that the structure and contents of the respondents’ initial judgment had indeed been modified. This change could be accounted for as the outcome of four ‘sense-remaking’ mechanisms, which we theorize as complexifying, reprioritizing, conceptualizing and contextualizing. Our study contributes to the literature on BE education by demonstrating the benefits of a sensemaking approach. It also offers an original process-based model of EJ, specifying the mechanisms at play in EJ change. Finally, it contributes to the field of sensemaking studies by introducing the concept of sense-remaking, shedding new light on the evolutive dimension of sensemaking.

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Author Biographies

Loréa Baïada-Hirèche, Institut Mines-Télécom Business School, Université Paris-Saclay, LITEM, 91025, Evry-Courcouronnes, France, chercheure associée à Dauphine Recherches en Managementl

Loréa Baïada-Hirèche is a permanent professor at Institut Mines-Télécom Business School since 2008. She teaches mainly organizational behavior and business ethics. Her research interests include behavioral ethics, ethical decision making and business ethics teaching. She coordinates the research team Ethos (Ethics, Technologies, Humans, Organizations, Society), member of LITEM (EA 7363) research center, affiliated to University of Paris-Saclay. She is also an associate researcher at DRM (UMR 7088), PSL, Université Paris Dauphine and the author of several academic publications, notably in the Journal of Business Ethics (a Financial Times ranked journal).

Lionel Garreau, Université Paris Dauphine – PSL, DRM (UMR 7088), Place du Maréchal de Lattre de Tassigny Paris, France

Lionel Garreau is associate professor in strategy and organization at University of Paris Dauphine, PSL, DRM (UMR 7088). He is in charge of the Executive PhD program. His work focuses on the construction of meaning in organizations and its articulation with strategy, in particular with strategic practices that convey meaning and hybrid business models. He is a member of mission committees of mission-driven companies and has been a member of several academic boards (Dauphine Foundation Board of Directors, AIMS Board of Directors, AIMS Scientific Committee, EDBA Council Board of Directors, etc.). His work has been published in various journals such as Strategic Organization, British Journal of Management, Information & Organization, Revue française de gestion, M@n@gement, etc.

Jean Pasquero, Département de Stratégie et Responsabilité sociale et environnementale, École des sciences de la gestion, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal (Québec), Canada

Jean Pasquero is a full professor in the Department of Strategy and Social and Environmental Responsibility at the School of Management of Université du Québec à Montréal (ESG-UQAM). His work focuses on the management of organizations in relation to their societal environment, using a socio-constructionist approach, which includes business ethics. He has taught on five continents and chaired three international scholarly societies (ASAC Canada, IABS USA, RIODD France). He is a fellow of IABS, and the recipient of several awards for his publications in the field of corporate social management.

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