Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2006. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The last decade has seen a continuing erosion of trust in business. Companies inability to realise trust in practice has created public cynicism and mistrust. This eruption of mistrust compelled business to ask why trust has become as issue of concern and how one can re-establish trust in commerce. The study will investigate the functioning of the concept of trust in business. Our hypothesis is that a move from mistrust to trust in the current business environment is only possible through a change in our understanding of ethics. A mere change in business processes or a tightening of corporate governance and compliance will not help us to move away from the culture of suspicion that is negatively influencing our business environment. We will propose the work of Emmanuel Levinas as an ethical alternative to the de-ontological and teleological approaches that are currently dominating our understanding of business ethics. Using some of his key concepts we construct what we call an 'embodied trust'. This form of trust is grounded in responsibility towards the other, and not in the rational sentiments of the egotistical subject. We complement this more philosophical approach to trust by building a business case for it by looking at the way it functions in various business instances. We acknowledge that a lot of what we have discussed is already an implicit part of what is happing in the business community. By looking at issues such as integrity, transparency I leadership, corporate culture, stakeholders, corporate social responsibility, branding and corporate governance, we highlight the existing forms of trust that already adhere to the discussed ethical requirements, and indicate the direction that business needs to take to cultivate this kind of trust in all its business processes. We conclude our study by giving two examples that will serve as illustration of our argument. The first being Regal Bank as an example of 'embodied mistrust' and the second being Allan Gray as an illustration of 'embodied trust'. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die laaste dekade is gekenmerk deur 'n voortdurende erosie van vertroue in die sakewereld. Maatskappye se onvermoe om in die praktyk vertroue te skep, het verder bygedra tot openbare sinisme en wantroue in sakepraktyke. Hierdie ontploffing van wantroue het organisasies genoop om te besin oor waarom vertroue so 'n belangrike kwessie is, en oor hoe om dit te herstel. Hierdie studie . ondersoek die wyse waarop die konsep van vertroue in besigheid funksioneer. Dns hipotese is dat die verskuiwing van wantroue na vertroue in die heersende besigheidsomgewing aileen moontlik is deur 'n veranderde begrip van etiek. Die blote verandering in besigheidsprosesse of 'n verskerping van korporatiewe beheer en nakoming van reels sal cns nie help om weg te beweeg van 'n kultuur van agterdog wat besig is om cns besigheidsmilieu negatief te be"(nvloed nie. Ons stel die werk van Emmanuel Levinas as 'n etiese alternatief voar om die de-ontologiese en teleologie5e benaderings te vervang wat tans cns beg rip van besigheidsetiek oorheers. Deur van sy sleutelbegrippe te gebruik, konstrueer ons wat ons noem 'n 'beliggaamde vertroue'. Hierdie vorm van vertroue is gegrond in verantwoordelikheid teenoor die ander en nie in die rasionele trekke van die egotisiese subjek nie. Ons komplementeer ons filosofiese benadering tot vertroue met 'n praktiese kyk op hoe dit funksioneer in verskillende besigheidsprosesse. Baie van dit wat ons bespreek, is reeds implisiet deel van dit wat gebeur in die bre;; besigheidsgemeenskap. Deur te kyk na sake soos integriteit, deursigtigheid, leierskap, korporatiewe kultuur, belanghebbendes, korporatiewe sosiale verantwoordelikheid, handelsmerke en korporatiewe beheer, wys ons uit hoe bestaande vorme van vertroue reeds voldoen aan ons voorgestelde etiese voorwaardes. Hiermee saam gee ons ook die rigting aan waarin besigheid moet ontwikkel om die tipe vertroue deel te maak van al sy besigheidsprosesse. Ons sluit die studie af deur twee voorbeelde te gee ter illustrasie van ons argument. Die eerste is die van Regal Bank as 'n voorbeeld van ' beliggaamde wantroue' en die tweede is die van Allan Gray as 'n illustrasie van 'beliggaamde vertroue'.

Having dominated policy agenda in developed economies for well over three decades, corporate governance is now getting to the top of the policy agenda in developing countries (Abor and Adjasi, 2007). However, the issues of corporate governance have focused on the major shareholders and institutional shareholders of the organization while little or no attention has been paid to public sector and the private enterprises in developing countries. This has been ignored by the literature. This study investigates the ethical dimensions of corporate governance practice in Ghanaian public sector and private enterprises. It aims to understand the phenomena of governance practices in this context and examine its implications for good corporate governance systems in Ghana. Using grounded theory methodology, data was collected from 28 semi structured interviews with board of directors and senior officials, and group discussion of 9 participants, mainly directors and officials involved with Ghanaian corporate governance system. The interviews were informed by the survey of governance practice. Through the constant comparative method of open coding of interviews, categories emerged which were subsumed into main categories during the axial coding. The paradigm model was used to establish the relationship among the categories. This formed the basis for the selective coding which identified the core category and its relationships with the sub-categories, verified to develop the substantive theory of corporate governance systems. The study explored the relationship between culture relativism and universalism and the formal theory in terms of stakeholder theory and shareholder theory. The substantive theory identifies that corporate governance practice in the public sector and private enterprises is influenced by traditional cultural values which has implications for ethical business environment. This study is the first attempt to combine corporate governance, grounded theory and national level culture in public sector and business enterprises, and to offer relevant recommendations for policy-makers. The substantive theory demonstrate that corporate governance systems are socially constructed and as such understanding the behaviour of board of directors is vital for understanding how corporate governance is practiced. The study contributes to better understanding of governance practice in the public sector organisations and the informal sector

When a business organization designs an ethics program, should it adopt a situationist conception of moral psychology or a virtue approach to character building? In this dissertation I argue that the answer is, both. The complement model is a recommendation for business ethics programs that blends the best aspects of these two theories in social psychology and philosophy. I start by giving a critique of the experimental literature surrounding situationism and argue that older adults have different prosocial competencies than the younger college-age subjects used in the situationist experiments. I give an explanation of virtue development, which concludes with the claim that older adults are an overlooked resource to be used in formal ethics mentoring programs. I also present the findings from a study I conducted with business ethics professionals, which provided information that I used to formulate the recommendations for the complement model.

This study argues that corporations have obligations in relation to fundamental human rights, for which there appears to exist a value consensus across different cultures and societies.  This study argues that the normative thrust of fundamental human rights obligations of corporations derive primarily from national legal orders and only secondarily from the international level, whereas both draw their foundations from an international value system.  This argument is backed by an empirical study of sixty-five national legal orders in relation to corporate fundamental human rights obligations.  Thirdly, it argues that fundamental human rights obligations may also derive from unilateral commitments by corporations themselves. This study thereafter proposes a normative framework of obligations to respect, protect and fulfil fundamental human rights.  In other words, it argues that both corporations and states have an obligation to respect, protect and fulfil fundamental human rights.  The study employs a holistic approach which identifies a three-fold responsibility for fundamental human rights violations by or involving corporations: corporate, individual and state responsibility.  In this light, it argues for concurrence between corporate, individual and state responsibility, where possible.  Identifying obligations and responsibility is only one of the aspects of the idea of corporate responsibility.  As important is the question of how one can respond to fundamental human rights violations by corporations.  As international mechanisms are often non-effective, and even non-existent, the provision of effective remedies for victims of fundamental human rights violations by or involving corporations, this study argues, rests where fundamental human rights are best protected within the national normative frameworks.  The final aim is to develop the normative framework <i>de lege</i> <i>ferenda</i>.  This study makes thirteen recommendations on how to improve the normative framework for corporate responsibility for fundamental human rights.

The interaction among firms in the supply chain is necessary for business process execution and relationship success. One phenomenon of great significance to buyer-supplier relationships is opportunism. Opportunism is defined as behavior that is self-interest seeking with guile. It is manifested in behaviors such as stealing, cheating, dishonesty, and withholding information. Opportunism negatively impacts relational exchange tenets such as trust, commitment, cooperation, and satisfaction. Furthermore, perceptions of opportunism negatively affect firm performance. In lieu of the known negative effects of opportunistic behavior on buyer-supplier relationships, why do agents continue to engage in opportunistic tactics with their exchange partners? A comprehensive examination is necessary in order to understand why sourcing professionals engage in acts of opportunism. Understanding why opportunism occurs will reveal how to deter it, and this remains a gap in the literature. Based on theories in economics, marketing channels, supply chain management, decision science, and psychology, a comprehensive model tested a set of factors hypothesized to drive the use of opportunistic tactics. Factors include buyer-supplier relationship-specific factors, environmental factors, individual personality-related factors, and situational factors. Data was collected via internet survey of sourcing professionals from private industry and government agencies. Common to many studies of ethics, respondents made choices based on two hypothetical vignettes. Two logistic regression models were used to test the hypotheses. Factors found to affect buyer opportunism included buyer power, corporate ethical values, pressure to perform, leadership opportunism, business sector, honesty/integrity, and subjective expected utility. This research contributes to theory by combining several disparate theories to best explain opportunism. A comprehensive evaluation should determine which theory explains the most variance in decision making. The study contributes to practice by identifying those important factors contributing to a sourcing professional's decision to use opportunistic tactics. The ability to manage these factors should improve the probability of relationship success. Additionally, the identification of these factors should help leaders to make more accurate estimates of transaction costs - key knowledge required to make an informed make or buy governance decision.

Au cours des dernières décennies, les directions d’entreprises ont accordé une attention croissante à la question de l’éthique. Cela s’est traduit par la mise en place de différentes démarches (RSE, développement durable, etc.). Parmi elles, le projet d’une éthique d’entreprise, qui est connu le plus souvent pour ses « chartes éthiques » ou ses « codes de conduite » en tant qu’ils sont rendus publics. Pour autant, ces documents s’inscrivent en interne dans un dispositif de management (organisation, outils de contrôle, communication) qui entend faire changer les manières de travailler des salariés. Cela implique une légitimité de la direction à imposer une éthique qui ne nous semble pas aller de soi. Dans ces conditions, nous nous proposons d’étudier la manière dont la direction conçoit son rôle en matière d’éthique et construit sa légitimité auprès des salariés. Nous nous demandons dans quelle mesure l’éthique d’entreprise contribue à une évolution de l’autorité managériale. Nous étudions le cas d’une ex-entreprise publique du secteur de l’énergie, Electricité de France, où nous avons réalisé une partie de notre projet de thèse sous convention CIFRE. Nous analysons l’évolution du dispositif de management sur l’éthique d’entreprise à partir d’un corpus de documents compris entre 1971 et 2015. Nous explorons cinq axes : le rapport de la direction au contexte, les choix d’organisation pour prendre en compte l’éthique, le format des référentiels éthiques, les outils de gestion pour faciliter l’appropriation de l’éthique, et la relation de la direction aux syndicats à travers le projet d’une éthique d’entreprise. / In recent decades, corporate management has been paying increasing attention to the issue of ethics. This has resulted in the implementation of various approaches (CSR, sustainable development, etc.). Among them, the project of a corporate ethics, which is known most often by its "ethical charters" or its "codes of conduct", as they are made public. However, these documents are part of an internal management system (organization, control tools, communication) that intends to change the ways employees work. This implies a legitimacy of management to impose an ethics that does not seem self-evident. In these conditions, we propose to study the way in which management conceives its role in ethics and builds its legitimacy among employees. We wonder how this contributes to an evolution of managerial authority. We are studying the case of a former public company in the energy sector, Electricité de France, where we realized part of our CIFRE thesis project. We analyze the evolution of the management system on corporate ethics from a body of documents between 1971 and 2015. We explore five areas: the report of management to the context, the organizational choices taking ethics into account, the format of ethical standards, management systems to facilitate the appropriation of ethics, and the relationship of management to unions through the project of corporate ethics.

<p>In this paper I explore the question ‘can a good manager be a good person?’ the answer is yes, no, or to a greater or lesser degree. Ultimately it depends on the ends at which the business, in which the manager works, aims towards. For these ends underpin what is ‘rational’ for how a manager should behalf. If a business’ end goal is purely profit maximisation then there is no room for a manager to take moral considerations into account, and therefore be a good person. If a business sees itself as a ‘practice’, consciously aiming to promote the social good the answer is yes, a good manager can be a good person. There are those businesses, and their managers, that fall somewhere in between these two ideal-types.</p>

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Advertising, as an industry, reflects contemporary values whilst creating new symbols and changing both behaviour and public opinion. In the last hundred years, advertising has pervaded most areas of life, and spaces that are commer-cial free are becoming rare. The aim of this dissertation is to explore and map various social objects that create the perception of morality that exists within an advertising agency. The approach can be described as qualitative, descriptive, analytical and constructionist. The study belongs within a research field that borders on business economics/business ethics and philosophy/descriptive eth-ics. Fundamental to my study is the exploration of stories told by different key advertising practitioners. Using a symbolic interactionist approach I iden-tify important meaning carriers that together create and identify the social object “morality”. The empirical material is based on a total of 36 inter-views conducted 1998-2000 with advertising practitioners from 15 Swedish advertising agencies. In addition to the interviews, an observational study was conducted for eight months in 1998 along with a literature study. In my analysis two related areas for morality emerged; one area focusing mo-rality related to clients/consumers, and one area focusing morality within the agency/branch. Two models illustrating the results were constructed. Ethics, economics and aesthetics often find themselves on opposing sides in various situations and at different levels in the work process at the agency. The need for profit gives precedence to the economic aspect mak-ing it superior to the other two aspects, ethics and aesthetics. However, advertising practitioners that prioritise the aesthetic aspects may find them-selves be awarded a golden egg at some yearly gala. Hence, to stretch a little on morality and sin with refinement may be quite rewarding. The dissertation was preceded by and builds on a licentiate dissertation in busi-ness economics by Larsson-Eklund (2002) - “Med skaparkraft som etiskt argu-ment. En explorativ studie om moral och yrkesetik inom reklambranschen ur ett internt relationsperspektiv” (enclosed in appendix 6).

In this paper I explore the question ‘can a good manager be a good person?’ the answer is yes, no, or to a greater or lesser degree. Ultimately it depends on the ends at which the business, in which the manager works, aims towards. For these ends underpin what is ‘rational’ for how a manager should behalf. If a business’ end goal is purely profit maximisation then there is no room for a manager to take moral considerations into account, and therefore be a good person. If a business sees itself as a ‘practice’, consciously aiming to promote the social good the answer is yes, a good manager can be a good person. There are those businesses, and their managers, that fall somewhere in between these two ideal-types.