The study of ethics remains of critical importance to researchers and organizations alike and continues to receive attention as ethical infractions persist. This laboratory study (N = 194) compares the effects of ethical codes of conduct and ethical narratives, two ways that organizations may choose to communicate ethical standards to organizational followers along with two boundary conditions, industry/field constraints and moral intensity, and their joint impact on ethical decision-making, ethical sensemaking, metacognitive reasoning strategy, and perceptions of organizational communication effectiveness outcomes. Findings showed that neither type communication of ethical information on its own, result in higher levels of ethical, sensemaking, or metacognitive reasoning outcomes. Organizations may choose to present followers with a set of codes of conduct, or they may choose to share an ethical narrative, but whichever method is used should include relevant industry/field constraints. Additionally, significant results were found for constraints and moral intensity, as well as a number of two- and three-way interactions for overall ethicality, sensemaking, and use of metacognitive reasoning skills, suggesting the importance of informing employees about the types of industry pressures or restrictions that can lead to misconduct. Results showed that participants were better at problem recognition, recognizing their circumstances, and forecasting as well. This study offers fresh insight into codes of conduct theories and boundary conditions that increase their effectiveness. Implications and future directions on communication of ethical information are discussed.