Business and Society Review
Abstract
This study evaluates how organizations can communicate a code of ethics and whether explaining the code improves employees’ understanding. The authors conduct a cluster-randomized controlled trial with 519 workers at a prominent Mexican pawnshop chain, comparing communication and explanation approaches against the existing program. They find no evidence that the interventions enhanced workers’ understanding of the code. The result raises the possibility that ethics programs based mainly on distributing or explaining a written code may fail to achieve their intended purpose and may use resources without changing employee comprehension. The paper also demonstrates that a cluster-randomized trial can be implemented in the business-ethics setting, providing a rigorous approach for evaluating organizational ethics initiatives and informing the design of more effective programs.