Journal Article

Ethics Training in the Indian IT Sector: Formal, Informal or Both?

Löwstedt, Jan, Mohapatra, Siddharth, Verma, Pratima

2016

Overview

Ethics training—an important means to foster ethical decision-making in organisations—is carried out formally as well as informally. There are mixed findings as regards the effectiveness of formal versus informal ethics training. This study is one of its first kinds in which we have investigated the effectiveness of ethics training as it is carried out in the Indian IT sector. We have collected the views of Indian IT industry professionals concerning ethics training (N = 266), and employed positivist (regression analysis and hierarchical linear modeling) and interpretive research (content analysis). We first have argued that the importance of the perception towards ethics has bearings not only on the individual ideologies but also on the organisational ethical values. In doing so, first we have conceptualised a theoretical framework: Perception of Ethics Training in Employees and Organisations (PETINEO). Second, we have studied the correlations between various components of this model. Third, we, under the rubric of PETINEO, examined the effectiveness of ethics training programmes for the Indian IT companies. Fourth, we have elaborated upon the results of our study. Our results suggest that the combination of both formal and informal means to undertake ethics training has superior impact on ethical decision-making in the Indian IT industry as compared to the use of any one of them in isolation.

• Publisher: Springer,Springer Netherlands,Springer Nature B.V
• Subject: Analysis / Brand equity / Brand loyalty / Business and Management / Business Ethics / Business etics / business training / Companies / Content analysis / Corporate governance / Corporate responsibility / Decision making / Developing countries / Education / Effectiveness / Employees / Employers / Environmental ethics / Ethical behavior / Ethical codes / Ethical dilemmas / Ethical instruction / Ethics / Global economy / Ideology / India / Individual ethics / Information technology / IT work / Job training / LDCs / Linear analysis / Management / Moral judgment / Perception / Perceptions / Philosophy / Quality of Life Research / Regression analysis / Social ethics / Social responsibility / SPECIAL SECTION PAPERS / Studies / Training / Values