HR Executive wins WBS award for best DBA thesis

When a business executive is offered a wedding gift by a distant relative who is also a potential vendor, the right answer is not clear-cut. Cultural norms will support acceptance, while corporate codes of conduct demand refusal. This collision of value systems is not exceptional or hypothetical—it reflects a recurring ethical dilemma embedded in the everyday decision-making of leaders operating within complex socio-cultural environments.

Many African business leaders face this ethical challenge every day. It is the main focus of Alero Onosode's doctoral thesis, and she won the Best DBA Thesis Prize at Warwick Business School’s recent Doctorate of Business Administration (DBA) Conference.

“I am deeply honoured and excited to receive the Thesis of the Year 2025 Award, particularly as it coincides with the 10th anniversary of the DBA programme at WBS,” said Dr Onosode. “What makes this recognition really special and meaningful is that I was unaware I was in the running for the award, so it is a pleasant surprise for which I am thankful.”

Her thesis, Equipping business leaders to address cognitive dissonance in ethical decision‑making, explores how leaders manage the tension between entrenched cultural norms and formal ethical standards. It was recognised at a two‑day international gathering marking a decade of practitioner‑led, high‑impact DBA research at WBS.

From lived experience to practical strategy

Africa is frequently described as the next global growth frontier, yet persistent perceptions of corruption continue to erode trust. Dr Onosode’s work investigates how leaders navigate ethical dilemmas shaped by expectations of reciprocity, family obligation and collective identity — norms that can conflict with governance frameworks.

“I am driven by a deep curiosity about how sustainable organisations are built,” she explained. “Having spent most of my career working with a multinational organisation, from where I transitioned to a Nigerian company, I became increasingly preoccupied with questions of institutional longevity. As I looked around the environment in which I worked, I noticed that many organisations struggled to endure.”

With more than 30 years of experience in the global oil and gas industry, she focused on human capital development, bringing a practical perspective to the study. The ethical pressures she examined were not hypothetical but familiar challenges observed across her career.

“As an HR professional, my thinking naturally gravitated towards people—specifically, the role individuals and leaders play in shaping institutions,” she said.

“I then began to focus on the cultural context in which organisations operate and questioned the role of culture and the ethical climate in influencing organisational longevity. It was only at this intersection that my research took shape.”

Understanding the leader’s dilemma

The first phase of the research involved in‑depth qualitative interviews with 21 senior Nigerian corporate leaders. Dr Onosode explored how executives respond when cultural obligations collide with organisational ethical codes. These moments often produced emotional strain and cognitive dissonance as leaders attempted to reconcile personal identity with formal expectations.

“I believe what makes my research distinctive is that it recognises ethical positioning is not just a central element of leadership but a viable choice even in reputationally challenged environments,” she noted. “By engaging leaders in interviews grounded in their lived experiences, the research deepens insights and provides practical strategies for making ethical decisions and addressing ethical dilemmas that may arise.”

Across interviews, leaders described developing individualised strategies to manage the tension — frameworks that acknowledged cultural realities while striving to maintain ethical integrity.

The second phase of the study tested whether these leader‑developed strategies could be shared more widely. Dr Onosode designed and delivered an ethical decision‑making training intervention for 52 middle‑level managers and business owners. Participants showed improved ethical awareness, demonstrating that culturally grounded approaches can strengthen decision‑making across organisational levels.

“Much of the existing discourse and training on ethics is grounded in Western frameworks, which do not always fully account for the nuances of African social and cultural realities,” she said.

“My intention was to surface insights and share strategies that allow leaders to engage with ethics in ways that are culturally situated, relevant, and practical within their own contexts.

Professor Giovanni Radaelli, DBA Programme Director at Warwick Business School, said: “Dr Onosode’s thesis exemplifies what the WBS DBA stands for. It not only diagnoses a critical challenge for economic development but goes on to design, test and evaluate a solution in a rigorous way. The work bridges theory and practice to deliver real organisational impact.”

For Dr Onosode, the implications extend beyond individual leaders.

“If organisations were to take just one thing from this work, I hope it would be this: that given the profound influence of context on human behaviour, enhancing leaders’ capacity for deliberate and ethical response is pivotal to business success and longevity,” she said.

“And that African cultural values are not an anathema to ethics—instead, they can be profoundly relevant to ethical leadership and decision-making.”

Celebrating 10 years of DBA impact

The 10th-anniversary DBA conference included a keynote speech by Simon Brayshaw. He is a member of the first 2016 cohort and shared his thoughts on the programme.

“The DBA gave me the space to step back from day-to-day leadership and rigorously interrogate how strategy is really formed and executed. That blend of academic discipline and real-world relevance is what makes the programme so powerful.”

Two other theses were recognised. Christopher Ehimen’s research focused on Improving medicine availability in Nigeria's pharmaceutical supply chain. He used 'design science research' to test an intervention on 20 medicine products. This work showed measurable improvements and has strong potential for scaling. It won the silver prize.

The bronze finalist was Alex Korogodsky’s work, Algorithmic Management in Professional Settings. This study looks at the unexpected effects of 'algorithmic management' on trust and productivity. His concept of Algorithmic Impression Management is already shaping academic debate and influencing management teaching.

As DBA applications continue to rise, the anniversary event underscored the programme’s mission: developing senior professionals who can transform organisations through evidence‑based, ethically grounded research.

Looking ahead, Dr Onosode argues ethical leadership will be central to Africa’s future.

“I believe the kind of ethical leadership Africa needs over the next decade validates the values of its people,” she said. “Values that emphasise courage, compassion, our shared humanity and sound judgement  deliberately woven  into the ethical fabric and leadership stories in our organisations while holding up the mirror of sustainability.”

The objective of the Doctorate in Business Administration at WBS is to develop solutions addressing actual challenges faced by businesses.