M.A. / Today's public managers in the South African public service face complex ethical dilemmas, often having to weigh personal and professional values against current opinion and the law. In the climate of increasing concern over ethical conduct in public service, they should adhere to ethics management. Research for this dissertation indicates that ethics in the public service is poorly managed. It is the responsibility of the public managers to ensure that ethical values, such as efficiency, honesty and integrity, to name just a few, are instilled in their subordinates from the first day of their appointment. Public managers are doers and deciders ...

Thesis (DTech (Marketing Management))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2008. / There is little doubt that public relations faces an identity crisis threatening to relegate this troubled organisational function permanently to the sidelines, unless it succeeds in reinventing itself. Such reinvention is mooted by a number of authors who propose the solution that public relations should rename itself. However, as others are quick to point out, renaming will not be the only solution, and a more extensive realignment of public relations is needed. The reinvention of public relations pertains specifically to its role in the organisation, its reputation (currently negative), and its contribution to the organisation's strategy and ethics. This thesis examines the problems beleaguering public relations and proposes that Porter's value chain analysis be used as the foundation for the reinvention of public relations. Arguments in support of the use of Porter's value chain analysis are presented, and empirical evidence supporting the likelihood of this approach succeeding is sought - and found. In conjunction with the problems surrounding public relations, the ethical landscape of the 21st Century is investigated with specific reference to unethical organisational practices so prevalent today. In proposing that Porter's value chain analysis be used to reinvent public relations, the thesis also argues that public relations can play a role in ensuring greater ethical responsibility of organisations. The relationship between public relations and marketing, so long a thorn in the side of public relations practitioners, academics, and authors, is clarified, and the organisational position of public relations is addressed. Finally, the thesis argues that public relations should see itself as a support activity in the organisation, where it is involved in organisation-wide communication support to all of the primary activities that are carried out to seek, find, create, and deliver value to customers.

The public is regularly shocked by revelations of new business scandals. Nearly every sector of society is tainted by incidents of unethical behaviour. In this regard, the South African financial services industry has attracted a lot of attention, as some of the biggest scandals in recent years have occurred in this industry. With the world economy still experiencing the effects of the global recession, the last thing that institutions in the financial arena must do is engage in unethical behaviour. Immoral behaviour could damage a company's repution and lead to further financial losses. The purpose of this study was thus two-fold: firstly, to investigae the factors that influence unethical decision-making and behaviour in the local life insurance sector, and secondly to evaluate how business ethics are institutionalised at a sample of life insurance companies.

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Economic and Business Sciences,University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg / Although some previous research has focused on consumer behaviour with respect to corporate social performance (CSP), few empirical studies have been done, especially in the African context. In particular, a highly under-researched topic is the role that corporate social performance (CSP) plays in South Africa. Due to the increasing public awareness of CSR globally, individuals in South Africa are becoming more aware of the need for companies to engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and companies have realised that fulfilling social responsibilities has a positive impact on their overall performance and sustainability. In this regard, the current study examines the effects of perceptions of CSP in South Africa. Particularly, it investigates whether the perception of CSP plays a role on individual’s purchasing decisions, in enhancing reputation of a company, and the role that a company’s reputation for social responsibility plays during a corporate crisis.The study uses the exploratory model of surplus, break-even and deficit developed by Coldwell and Joosub (2014) and a modified version of Carroll and Buchholtz’s (2000) model to measure the perceived actual CSP of companies in comparison to what individuals expect a company’s CSP to be. To measure the effects of perception of CSP in relation to actual purchasing behaviour, Carroll’s CSR framework (1991), which takes economic, legal, ethical and philanthropic responsibilities into account, was adopted. To explore whether CSP influences the reputation of a company, Fombrun's, Gardberg, & Sever (2000, p. 253) 20-items RQ grouped into six pillars “(emotional appeal, products & services, financial performance, vision & leadership, workplace environment, and social responsibility)” was used. Finally, to investigate whether CSR-derived reputational capital plays a role in sustaining a company during a crisis, crisis scenarios from Dean (2004) were adopted and modified to suit the study. A qualitative follow-up study, through face-to-face interviews, was carried out to clarify the quantitative findings. A mixed methods technique that combines questionnaires, interviews and content analysis was used to explore the effects of perceptions of CSP on individual purchasing behaviour, reputation capital and crisis management. A sample of 145 students at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa was used for a quantitative study, and a sample of 30 for a qualitative study. The findings show that a company that fulfils consumer expectations of social performance generates positive perceptions of CSP that not only lead to actual purchases of goods and services but also generate desirable returns through enhanced reputational capital that is seen to sustain a company during a crisis situation. Aspects other than CSP that also influence an individual's actual purchasing behaviour at grass roots level are also described in the study. The study extended the theoretical understanding of CSR by interrogating Carroll’s CSR framework (1991) for empirical analysis and its applicability in an African context. The findings show that CSP plays a positive though relatively minor role in individuals’ actual purchasing behaviour. This study also enhances the theoretical knowledge of individual expectations of CSP and actual CSP of companies in South Africa. Our study validates Coldwell & Joosub’s (2014) exploratory model of surplus, break-even and deficit in the relationship between actual and expected CSP. Also, the study has managerial implications in that those companies that engage in CSR are perceived favourably than those that do not hence enhancing their reputational capital; and that prior CSP reputational capital played a significant role in a crisis situation. Future research could investigate aspects like culture, political settings and the economic foundations of different African countries to confirm the findings of this study. / NG (2020)

A Research Report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, Applied Ethics for Professionals Johannesburg, 2016 / This research sought to defend the proposition that not only do corporations have a moral right to lobby, corporations also have a moral duty to influence public policy through lobbying. The research has considered the ethics of corporate lobbying within the context of the extent literature in Business Ethics and from a South African perspective. An argument for corporate moral personhood has been advanced as the basis for a corporation’s moral right to lobby. The rights and duties of corporations as citizens have also been considered, and a case has been made for a normative theory of corporations as political actors with an associated moral obligation to seek to influence public policy to promote public interests. A set of ethical principles to guide responsible lobbying has been articulated as a morally justified basis for restricting a corporation’s moral right to lobby which arises from its status as a type of moral person to ensure that the power of corporations is harnessed in service of society. / MT2017

This research sets out to examine how entrepreneurs experience and deal with ethical dilemmas. An entrepreneur is defined as a person who creates something of value and assumes the risk of establishing and managing a business around it. An ethical dilemma comes about when the entrepreneur must choose between alternatives and where the morally correct choice is unclear. This may be due to conflicting personal values or loyalties, tensions arising out of the realization that the moral action is not in line with his self-interest, cross-cultural conflict, or moral ambiguity. Because of the nature of entrepreneurship, the entrepreneur typically lives with ever-present threats arising from limited resources, competition, and the risk of business failure. His actions must simultaneously ensure survival, maximize profit, limit risk, counter threats, optimize the use of resources, and reward him with a feeling of satisfaction. It is hardly surprising that conflicting priorities sometimes ensue. It is also widely believed that these entrepreneurial pursuits supersede the more general need to act in morally appropriate ways. This is a phenomenological study, based on interviews with seven entrepreneurs in established service-oriented ventures. They were asked to describe their business, any dilemmas they have experienced, how they were handled, and what challenges they experience as entrepreneurs in South Africa today. Using phenomenology as my vehicle for data collection and analysis, I sought to enter the lived-worlds of my participants to discover the essence of how ethical dilemmas are experienced in the entrepreneurial milieu. The study’s findings reflect that each entrepreneur has a distinctive world-view, which is represented by a complex mosaic of virtue ethics, deontology, utilitarianism and metaethical perspectives. The permutations are numerous, thus negating the possibility of typecasting entrepreneurs. Instead this research introduces the reader to aspects of entrepreneurial reality such as the complexity of cultural diversity, the freedom to limit the amount of personal energy given to business, and the existence of a more sensitive, searching inner soul beneath the apparent hard-nosed business-oriented public image. While examining entrepreneurial dilemmas in depth, this research introduces the dilemma drum as a tool to portray the argument form of any dilemma by making explicit the ethical component inherent in every business decision and facilitating its effective resolution in a non-prescriptive way. The findings identify certain individual characteristics of participant entrepreneurs that are unlike anything in the mainstream literature, dispelling notions of the entrepreneur as a societal misfit, an essential innovator with vision and flair, or a compulsive risk-taker, while confirming success as the key motivator rather than money per se, the importance of significant others, and the influence of culture and gender. They provide fresh insights into the psyche of the entrepreneur, which include: the existence of inner conviction - marrying the concept of goal-directedness with that of making a contribution to society; exercising the virtues in order to support a delicate balance between business and ethical imperatives; learning to respect energy flow; an alternative morality based on attracting and allowing benevolent or serendipitous events to happen naturally and redefining success as ‘being able to create what is needed as and when needed’; focusing one’s energy on the telos; developing a personal marketing formula suited to a culturallydiverse society; and the anxiety associated with being out-there on one’s own. The general statement, which is ultimately distilled from the seven situated descriptions, introduces a theory of entrepreneurial ethics that presents a new and different view of the lived-world of entrepreneurship, consisting of: Firstly, the key components of entrepreneurial success – having clear goals, energy, making a contribution to society, being connected, getting others on board, and work as an extension of self; secondly, what drives entrepreneurs – goal-orientation, sense of personal excitement, inner conviction, autonomy, and external recognition of success; thirdly, the entrepreneurial ethic – concern for credibility, commitment to service, contributing to quality of life; fourthly, the nature of entrepreneurial dilemmas - conflicting responsibilities, authenticity and credibility, risk and expansion, and awareness of diversity; fifthly, how entrepreneurs deal with ethical issues in their own distinctive ways – by holding fast to authentic virtues, bowing to community expectations, avoiding friction, adopting a ‘come-what-may’ or ‘what’s in it for me’ attitude, or pursuing a higher purpose where both parties benefit; sixthly, entrepreneurs’ world -views – beliefs, goals, ways of deriving satisfaction, virtuous behaviour; pen-ultimately, the challenges facing entrepreneurs in South Africa – overcoming the legacies of apartheid, containing crime, fostering an acceptable business ethic, and facilitating reconciliation between ethnic groups; and lastly, finding the power within – that illusive entrepreneurial spirit – self-reliance, looking beyond immediate obstacles, grasping opportunities, and understanding serendipity.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2001 / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study looked at the ethical and normative degeneration of the South African managers. A wide variety of factors word researched and several were found to impact the manager in this process of degeneration. The impact of the personal qualities of the individual were studied and also the impact of different management styles. Different leadership styles were described and the impact on the ethical management was researched. The organisational culture and the effect of the experience of the work environment were studied. Environment factors like the influence of the church, different ethical frameworks and the effect of capitalism and materialism were applied to the ethical and normative management process. The dichotomy and schizophrenic between the theory and the policies of normative management and the practices and operational management were postulated. A future perspective was defined and the principles of the process of change in organisations for the current timeframe were formulated. A very definitive shift were found in organisations to a paradigm were the focus is placed on relationships and integrity in these relationships. These relationships include all the different levels of relationships. It includes inter- and intra relationships of the manager. It includes the core relationship between the organisation and its employees. It also includes the relationship between the organisation and the society and the ecology. There is a shift away from success driven careers to a total life of significance. Within this lifestyle the focus are on balance between the working environment, personal life and family life. The leaders that succeed in making these changes in their personal lives and also their organisations are the truly visionary leaders. There are however a pattern of destructive ethical and normative degeneration amongst and especially South African managers present. This pattern is to the detriment of the organisations where these managers currently work. Managers and leaders in South Africa show an increasing lack of vision and motivation. The organisations that don't make the necessary changes and develop strategies and intervention processes will lose their leadership and managers to organisations that realised this vision. There are so many factors playing a role in this process, that a simplistic program for intervention will be unsuccessful. To successfully manage this intervention process in an organisation, the facilitator or change agent will need a proper insight into the different processes and will need process facilitation skills. Very few managers however got the ability or skills for this process. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie studie is gekyk na die etiese en normatiewe degenerasie van die Suid Afrikaanse bestuurder. 'n Verskeidenheid van faktore is gevind wat die bestuurder impakteer in hierdie proses. Daar is gekyk na die individu as persoon, as bestuurder met die impak van verskillende bestuurstyle, die impak van leierskap en leierskapstyle. Die impak van die organisasie kultuur, asook die belewing van die werksmilieu is ondersoek. Omgewingsfaktore soos die invloed van die kerk, verskillende etiese raamwerke en ook die effek van kapitalisme en materialisme is gestel teen die agtergrond van etiese en normatiewe bestuur. Die digotomie en skisofrenie tussen die teorie en beleid van normatiewe bestuur is gestel teenoor die operasionele bestuur en belewing van die praktyk. 'n Toekoms perspektief is ook gepostuleer en die tendense van verandering wat vandag in organisasie ontwikkel moet word, is geformuleer. Daar is 'n definitiewe verskuiwing in die besigheidswêreld na organisasies wat meer gefokus is op verhoudings en integriteit in hierdie verhoudings. Hierdie verhoudings omsluit al die verskillende vlakke van verhoudings. Dit sluit die intra- en inter persoonlike verhoudings van die bestuurder in. Dit sluit die verhouding tussen die organisasie en die werknemers in. Ook dié tussen die organisasie en die samelewing, sowel as met die ekologie, in. Daar is ook 'n verskuiwing wat plaasvind weg van sukses gedrewe loopbane na 'n totale lewenswyse wat sentreer rondom betekenis. Binne hierdie lewenswyse val die klem op sin en betekenis en moet daar 'n balans tussen die werk en die persoonlike en gesinslewe van die persoon wees. Dit is ook duidelik dat leiers wat hierdie skuiwe in hulle eie persoonlike lewens en in hul organisasies maak, werklike visionêre leiers is. Daar is ook onder die meerderheid van bestuurders (veral in Suid Afrika) 'n destruktiewe patroon van etiese en normatiewe degenerasie teenwoordig, wat tot groot nadeel van hul organisasies gaan strek. Daar is toenemend 'n gebrek aan visie en dus ook motivering. Organisasies wat nie doelbewuste strategieë en intervensies in plek gaan stel om hierdie verskuiwinge te bewerkstellig nie, gaan hul leierskap afstaan aan organisasies wat hierdie verskuiwinge gemaak het. Uit die studie blyk dit ook duidelik dat daar so 'n wye veld van faktore is wat 'n rol speel in hierdie proses, dat dit moeilik is om 'n simplistiese program van intervensies te formuleer. Om hierdie organisasie veranderinge suksesvol te bestuur, is begrip van die prosesse betrokke en proses fasilitering vaardighede nodig. Min bestuurders het egter hierdie insig en vaardighede.

Thesis (LLM (Mercantile Law))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / Corporate governance is defined as the system by which companies are managed and controlled. The concept came to the fore with the Cadbury Report in England in 1992 and has since been the topic of much academic discussion. The recent collapse of companies like Enron and WorldCom raised serious questions about international corporate governance practices. This has resulted in widespread reform. In the United States large-scale prescriptive measures were implemented through the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The United Kingdom persisted with their principle-based approach of comply or explain, although some amendments were made to the Combined Code through a joint effort by the Co-ordinating Group on Audit and Accounting Issues, the Smith Report and the Higgs Report. In Australia change took the form of the ASX Corporate Governance Principles and CLERP 9. South Africa, influenced by its common law background, followed a similar approach to that of the United Kingdom but has recently adopted a more prescriptive approach similar to that of the US. The King Committee was set up to review corporate governance in South Africa and two reports report were published – one in 1994 and another in 2002. Amendments to the JSE Listings Requirements followed. The Konar Report made recommendations on the reform of the accounting and auditing profession. The Department of Trade and Industry has recently launched a review of South African company law in conjunction with a review of the audit and accounting professions. These recent developments in company law will however not be discussed in depth as it is at a very early stage and is still subject to change. The aim of this study is to evaluate and determine whether or not the reform in South Africa is adequate to address the questions raised by recent corporate scandals in South Africa. The question also has to be asked whether South Africa should follow international trends in reform just for the sake of reforming. This requires an understanding of the principles underlying corporate governance and the reasons for the existence of corporate governance rules. With the increasing separation between ownership and control the accountability of directors has waned considerably. When addressing corporate governance issues, this must be kept in mind constantly. While the focus of recent reform has been on the company, its directors and auditors, the role of shareholders should not be ignored. What is needed to prevent directors and managers from abusing their positions of power are more informed and involved shareholders. The different role players must also cooperate in developing a culture of ethical behaviour and an environment of openness and accountability.

The South African mining industry has been, and continues to be, the main contributor of the country’s GDP. The listed mining companies have a great contribution to the market capitalisation of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE, 2014). Pre-1994, the mining companies had been under scrutiny for a wide range of negative environmental and social impacts in their operational areas. The mining companies were accused of a lack of sustainability plans, carbon emissions, land rehabilitation plans, pollution and lack of community engagement (Buccasa, 2013). Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a platform for the mining industry to correct the errors of the past and to contribute towards socio-economic development and environmental concerns. Through the implementation of CSR initiatives, the mining companies have brought about a significant change in the lives of people affected by mining industry. In return, the mining companies have built a good reputation which had been tarnished in the past. The objective of the study was to explore the role of CSR in the mining industry and determine how CSR initiatives had impacted the lives of the beneficiaries in the mining sector. The research identified three sustainability dimensions, which are: environment, social aspects and economic aspects. The aim of the study was to establish whether CSR initiatives have contributed towards sustainable development. The study established how the JSE/SRI listed mining companies reported CSR and determined the types of initiatives implemented. The study identified the similarities and differences in the CSR initiatives being implemented by 10 selected mining companies listed in the JSE/SRI index. The study also identified sustainable development issues faced by the South African mining industry. The study reviewed how these mining companies reported their CSR and identified regulating bodies and codes that promoted CSR. The study also determined the role that the JSE/SRI index plays towards the development of CSR and sustainable development in the mining sector in South Africa. Integrated reports and sustainability reports of the mining companies were used for data collection to establish how these companies reported CSR and disclosed their CSR strategies on the internet. The mining companies which were analysed were mining companies listed in the JSE/SRI index from 2010 – 2014. The JSE/SRI index is aligned with global sustainability guidelines and locally relevant corporate responsibility standards. The study determined the significance of JSE/SRI listing towards the development of CSR; in relation to environmental, social and economic development in the mining industry.

The Nelson Mandela Bay area will be used to investigate the ethical and moral considerations faced by the informal sector. It is generally believed that informal sector businesses are characterised by high levels of unethical behaviour. The informal economy in many developing and under developed countries is large in terms of contribution to GDP and number of participants. The informal economy is largely composed of very small businesses that are not registered. They are not operating from suitable premises but run from homes, street pavements and other informal arrangements. In developing countries, self-employment has a greater share of informal employment than wage employment. It represents 70 percent of informal employment in Sub-Saharan Africa (if South Africa is excluded, the share is 81 percent), 62 percent in North Africa, 60 percent in Latin America and 59 percent in Asia. Consequently, informal wage employment in the developing world constitutes 40 percent of the informal employment outside of agriculture (Becker, 2004). The informal economy is as high as 56 percent of GDP in countries such as Georgia, Zimbabwe and Bolivia, where as it represents about 8 to 12 percent of economic activity in advanced or developed economies (Becker, 2004). In South Africa, informal businesses provide a viable alternative for many who are unable to find jobs in the formal sector of the economy.