Narrative research is an appropriate method for studying the constructs and sensemaking of moral courage. Moral courage or speaking up by professionals is needed for maintaining ethical checks and balances in organizations. Personal narratives give the researcher and the researched increased understanding of real-life individual and implicit behavior that encourages moral action by professionals. By reflecting on reasons for morally courageous actions, prototypes and implicit patterns become clearer. These insights fit the focus of a sensemaking-intuitive approach as most current approach to ethical decision-making. Insights from individual narratives can encourage and strengthen the professional in performing his or her much needed ethical role in the organization.
This article aims to explore the moral ideas and experiences that students at Dutch universities of applied sciences (UAS) have of being a professional with an ‘ethical compass.’Semi-structured interviews were held with 36 fourth-year Bachelor students divided over four institutions and three different programmes: Initial Teacher Educa- tion, Business Services and Information and Communication Technology. Findings show that students say they strive to be(come) moral professionals, but that they have difficulties recognising and articulating the moral aspects of their professional roles. They seem to lack a moral vocabulary and the moral knowledge to verbalise their aspirations and to provide arguments to explicate or legitimise their moral behaviour. While most students were critical of the support they received from their universities, they indicated that various other role models and (work) experiences did have a strong and positive influence on their moral development. In this article, we reflect on the findings in relation to international empirical research on students’ moral development and highlight the characteristics of UAS students.
