Business ethics: An analysis of a company's training program influence on employee behavior and morale

The purpose of this study is to analyze a business ethics training program in the corporate environment and determine the level of influence of a specific company's program on employee behavior and morale. The problem is the implementation of a business ethics training program by a company without measurement of its impact to its employees. In response to a decade of increasingly embarrassing ethics scandals, the company responded by establishing the Office of Internal Governance (OIG), an Ethics Line for employees to pose questions, ethics advisers in its business units and compliance education programs. The Office of Internal Governance was chartered in November 2003 to provide renewed and focused attention to the company's internal business practices.;This study surveyed 150 current employees located at the Long Beach, CA facility. The participants were asked to respond to a validated survey questionnaire designed to answer four research hypotheses. A total of 100 or 66.7% employees responded to the survey. The four research hypotheses tested significance of differences regarding position in the company, opinion on the current frequency and duration of ethics training, influence from ethics training on employee ethical behavior and perceived morale at work, and whether there is/is not a significant difference in employee ranking of ethical decision making factors at work as a result of the ethics training. An inferential statistical analysis was conducted utilizing t-tests, chi tests, and an F-test. Study findings indicate a there is not a statistically significant difference between management and non-management in regards to morale or behavioral influences.;Study findings also revealed that the majority of respondents overwhelmingly hold the opinion that increased frequency of training sessions would not be appropriate and should not be increased in duration. The study also found that there is not strong evidence whether the current yearly ethics training sessions are sufficient to influence ethical behavior at work. However, study findings indicate that there is a minor statistical significance in regards to ethics training influence on morale. And finally, roughly half of the respondent comments pointed to improving the content of the annual ethics training with 'real life' examples.