The objective of this study was mainly to describe, analyse and evaluate the determinants of the phenomenon of whistle blowing that influences the protection of employees making authorised and/or unauthorised disclosures. It was also a purpose of the study to evaluate the specific role of the Protected Disclosures Act 2000 (Act 26 of 2000) (PDA) in fulfilling its mandate to protect authorised disclosures on wrongdoing in public and private sector organisations. The PDA seeks to combat crime and corruption through the disclosing of wrongdoing. The intention is to create a culture which will facilitate the disclosure of information by employees relating to criminal and other irregular conduct in the workplace in a responsible manner, by providing comprehensive statutory guidelines through the PDA for the disclosure of such information, and protection against any retaliation as a result of such disclosures. An important aspect that this study dealt with was the provision, as a prerequisite to the PDA to be implemented successfully, that individual members of the private and public sectors have to act responsibly and in good faith in making disclosures in order to be protected by the PDA. In order to provide clarity on the conceptualisation of whistle blowing, the study explored the conceptual knowledge of the variables influencing the determinants of whistle blowing and the whistle blower through the application of a literature study of the concept and theories of ethics, values, morals, loyalty, trust and whistle blowing, in order to describe and analyse the variables influencing the whistle blower, the whistle blowing process, the characteristics of whistle blowers and the strategies and procedures employed to blow the whistle in an organisation. The study explored the organisational determinants influencing a whistle blower's decision to blow the whistle in the social context of an organisation in order to determine the influence of organisational culture and organisational trust as internal social factors that may facilitate the effective management of whistle blowing resulting in no whistle blowing taking place. The study objectives, appropriate conclusions and proposals are addressed based on the role that the PDA, the ethical determinants of the work environment, the determinants influencing the individual whistle blower and the organisational determinants influencing effective whistle blowing, can fulfil, in order to serve as a mechanism to combat corruption. / Public Administration / D. Litt. et Phil. (Public Administration)

This study was encouraged by the fact that the theoretical terrain of ethics in public administration and management posits that, despite the existence of a code of conduct that regulates the conduct of municipal functionaries and councillors at local government sphere, the ethics in practice in general are still illusive. All this revolves around the main guiding research objective for this study which was to examine the reception of a code of conduct by municipal functionaries and councillors at the Capricorn District Municipality in the Limpopo Province. In exploring the main question of this study, the researcher developed an understanding of the concept ethics in Public Administration by selecting ethics theories namely: consequentialism, deontology and virtue theories. From the lesson learnt, it is evident that throwing around charges about which theory is truly ethical and which one should be followed or should guide municipal functionaries and councillors in making policy decisions is pointless. There is no ethical system which appeals to all people, or even to the same person in different situations. It is undoubtedly the case that consequentialists, deontologists and those who stand by virtue theories can each be sincere in believing their system embodies goodness and morality. The formulation of the Code of Conduct for the South African local government indicates the commitment of the South African government to enhancing ethical conduct. This Code contains a uniform set of ethical guidelines and applications for use throughout local government. It is also clear that the Code of Conduct has been drafted so as to be as clear as possible, but a detailed standard of conduct and disciplinary measures are not provided. This is a great challenge as it poses concerns about the accountability of municipal functionaries and councillors, and about how disciplinary measures on unethical conduct of politicians and officials should be handled. Chapter 3 forms an understanding of how culture, religion and language have ethical significance for community and tradition particularly when municipal functionaries and councillors make decisions. The promotion of an appropriate local government culture posits that, in order for a municipal manager and a mayor to make better decisions, they must take the need to understand the diversity of the local government into consideration. The most important point to be drawn from chapter 4 is that, besides legal instructions, the nature and influence of human behaviour through leadership and ethics infrastructure such as appointing an ethics officer and using whistle blowing as a system to enhance ethical conduct is important. In outlining the statutory and regulatory framework that directs public officials and politicians’ ethical conduct in South Africa, it was identified that South Africa is highly conscious of differences between individuals; therefore it is unlikely that legislation and current initiatives will suffice to enforce ethical behaviour among public officials, councillors and municipal functionaries. Another finding of this study is that the only official document available as the Code of Conduct for local government can be found in the Local Government Municipal Systems Act 32 of 2000 in Schedule 1 and 2, and also in the Local Government Municipal Structures Act 117 of 1998 in Schedule 5. This finding is an indicative that South African local government does not have an official Code of Conduct as a separate document for ethical conduct. Following this finding, the recommendation is therefore that a separate document should be designed, formulated and emphasised. / Public Administration and Management / D. Litt. et Phil. (Public Administration)

For many years the South African educational platform has been the target of international and national criticism for its apartheid ideals. Since 1994 the former Model C high school has endured a changing landscape characterised by the ideals of educational transformation. However, the current face of the former Model C high school has been marred by the challenge of learner ill-discipline. This research aimed to explore the challenges experienced by female principals in a former Model C high school. A literature review focussed on female leadership and school discipline through the lens of a theoretical framework based on the ethics of care and transformational leadership theories. Using a qualitative case study design, data were collected and analysed. The analysis revealed that school discipline was a major challenge to the principal personally and professionally, and to the school. It further highlighted the strong need for support by the Department of Education. / Educational Management and Leadership / M. Ed. (Education Management)

À l’heure actuelle, la régulation des chaines mondiales de production dépend principalement de mécanismes non étatiques tels que les codes de conduite et les audits sociaux implantés par les entreprises, les ONG et les organisations internationales. Dans cette recherche, nous évaluons si les audits menés par Nike, Adidas et Puma peuvent contribuer à renforcer les droits des travailleurs chinois. À l’aide d’entrevues réalisées sur le terrain auprès d’auditeurs et d’ONG, nous avons conceptualisé quatre conditions de base, lesquelles concernent la participation directe des travailleurs, le développement de capacités locales, le respect de la liberté d’association et la professionnalisation du travail d’auditeur social. Notre étude conclut que des étapes restent à franchir afin que les audits deviennent des outils d’avancement des droits fondamentaux. L’enjeu prioritaire demeure le développement de structures démocratiques afin de permettre aux ouvriers de former des syndicats libres et de négocier leurs propres conventions de travail. / Current regulation of global supply chains mainly relies on non state mechanisms such as codes of conduct and social audits implemented by corporations, non governmental organizations (NGOs) and international organizations. This research seeks to assess if the audits carried out by Nike, Adidas and Puma can help strengthen the rights of Chinese workers. Through field work interviews conducted with auditors and NGOs, four basic conditions were defined and involve direct participation of workers, local capacity building, respect of freedom of association and professionalization of social auditors. The outcome of the study reveals progress still needs to be achieved for audits to become tools for the advancement of fundamental rights. The primary issue remains the development of democratic systems to allow workers to form free unions and negotiate their own collective labour agreements.

La responsabilité sociale des entreprises (RSE) est un concept qui fait référence au volontariat, sans définition unique, et visant la prise en compte des intérêts des parties prenantes de l’entreprise. Pour celle-ci, les caractéristiques communes à ces différentes définitions est d’établir des balises allant au-delà de ce que la loi fixe comme règle. Pour mettre en oeuvre la RSE, plusieurs outils sont utilisés, le code de conduite étant le plus répandu. Quant aux multiples parties prenantes de l’organisation, celle des travailleurs ne semble pas invitée à participer aux décisions de l’entreprise en matière de RSE, malgré les intérêts importants que les travailleurs et le syndicat peuvent posséder auprès de cette dernière. Notre recherche porte sur la convention collective en tant qu’outil de responsabilité sociale des entreprises. Nous nous intéressons à savoir si cet outil traditionnel en relations du travail pourrait être utilisé, tout comme un code de conduite, pour stimuler la participation des syndicale aux décisions de l’entreprise. À l’aide du Portrait statistique des conventions collectives analysées au Québec en 2006, nous avons validé la fréquence, le sujet ainsi que le niveau de participation syndicale dans les comités conjoints conventionnés en comparant les entreprises dites RSE et non RSE. Il s’est avéré qu’il n’y a pas plus de participation syndicale indiquée dans les conventions collectives d’entreprises RSE que dans celles non RSE. Cependant, notre analyse précise que deux outils RSE autres que le code de conduite adoptés par l’entreprise coïncident avec la participation syndicale, soit la signature d’un accord-cadre international et la participation au Pacte Mondial de l’ONU. / Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a concept referring to voluntarism, without unique definition, aiming to take into account interests of various company stakeholders. The main common characteristic is to institute principles that go beyond what the law establishes. In order for CSR to take place, several tools have been used, like the code of conduct which is the most widely used. As for one of the multiple corporate stakeholders, the workers don’t seem to be invited to participate in corporate decisions related to CSR, despite the major interests that they and the workers’ union might have in the company. Our research looks at the collective agreement as a tool for corporate social responsibility. We question ourselves to see if this traditional labour tool could be used, like the code of conduct, to confine unions’ participation in corporate decisions. With the Portrait statistique des conventions collectives analysées au Québec en 2006, we have validated the frequency, subject and participation level of unions in collective joint committees by comparing CSR and non CSR organizations. It appears that unions’ participation to corporate decisions is not higher in collective agreements of CSR organizations. Nevertheless, our analysis shows that two CSR tools other than a code of conduct adopted by the organization coincide with unions’ participation, that are the signature of a global framework agreement and participation to the UN Global Compact.

À l’heure actuelle, la régulation des chaines mondiales de production dépend principalement de mécanismes non étatiques tels que les codes de conduite et les audits sociaux implantés par les entreprises, les ONG et les organisations internationales. Dans cette recherche, nous évaluons si les audits menés par Nike, Adidas et Puma peuvent contribuer à renforcer les droits des travailleurs chinois. À l’aide d’entrevues réalisées sur le terrain auprès d’auditeurs et d’ONG, nous avons conceptualisé quatre conditions de base, lesquelles concernent la participation directe des travailleurs, le développement de capacités locales, le respect de la liberté d’association et la professionnalisation du travail d’auditeur social. Notre étude conclut que des étapes restent à franchir afin que les audits deviennent des outils d’avancement des droits fondamentaux. L’enjeu prioritaire demeure le développement de structures démocratiques afin de permettre aux ouvriers de former des syndicats libres et de négocier leurs propres conventions de travail. / Current regulation of global supply chains mainly relies on non state mechanisms such as codes of conduct and social audits implemented by corporations, non governmental organizations (NGOs) and international organizations. This research seeks to assess if the audits carried out by Nike, Adidas and Puma can help strengthen the rights of Chinese workers. Through field work interviews conducted with auditors and NGOs, four basic conditions were defined and involve direct participation of workers, local capacity building, respect of freedom of association and professionalization of social auditors. The outcome of the study reveals progress still needs to be achieved for audits to become tools for the advancement of fundamental rights. The primary issue remains the development of democratic systems to allow workers to form free unions and negotiate their own collective labour agreements.

This dissertation focuses in particular on a subject matter, that is relatively new in the Czech environment. It is mediation in civil (noncriminal) matters, governed by Act 202/2012 Coll. The author classifies it as one of the several methods of alternative dispute resolution. In the second part of her work she analyzes the med-arb method. In the third part of the dissertation, the author analyzes the mediation process itself, and specifically focuses on its legal aspects. The fourth part of the dissertation includes a comparative study of selected countries, in the field of civil law (Austria, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, Slovakia) and the Anglo-Saxon law (UK). The fifth part of the dissertation analyzes the Czech legislation. The author suggests adjustments de lege ferenda as well as amendments that do not require any changes of the law, but that can be addressed through the interpretation of individual provisions. The author complements her work with a selection of foreign cases, as the Czech case law has been completely missing so far. The work ends with an analysis of the Code of Conduct for Lawyers-Mediators, which will be currently published for lawyers - registered mediators.

This thesis presents a cross-national, cross-regime examination of foreign policy decision-making in the Spratly Islands dispute, focusing on China, Malaysia and the Philippines. It argues that how and why these countries have acted in particular ways towards the dispute relates to the relationship among foreign policy decision-making, government behaviour and domestic politics. The theoretical foundation of the study is foreign policy analysis. It applies the decision units approach advanced by Margaret and Charles Hermann and Joe Hagan to investigate who made foreign policy decisions on the Spratly Islands dispute in the three countries during the period 1991-2002, and how this influenced government behaviour. In addition, the contextual influence of domestic politics is considered. Four case studies inform the empirical analysis: the approaches taken by Malaysia and the Philippines to bolster their respective sovereignty claim, China???s establishment of a comprehensive maritime jurisdictional regime covering the Spratly Islands among other areas, China-Philippines contestation over Mischief Reef and the development of a regional instrument to regulate conduct in the South China Sea. Three conclusions are drawn. First, the decision units approach identifies the pivotal foreign policy decision-makers in each of the countries examined and the process involved. Second, it explains the relationship between decision unit characteristics -- self-contained or externally influenceable -- and each government???s behaviour towards the dispute. Injecting domestic politics into the analysis highlights motivations of and constraints faced by decision-makers, conditioning the form and content of government action. Third, it demonstrates a low predictive capability: the ???fit??? between hypothesised and actual government behaviour is poor. While it is not a comprehensive analytical tool, the combined decision units-domestic politics approach offers deeper insight into government decisions and behaviour on the Spratly Islands dispute than hitherto reported in the literature.

La responsabilité sociale des entreprises (RSE) est un concept qui fait référence au volontariat, sans définition unique, et visant la prise en compte des intérêts des parties prenantes de l’entreprise. Pour celle-ci, les caractéristiques communes à ces différentes définitions est d’établir des balises allant au-delà de ce que la loi fixe comme règle. Pour mettre en oeuvre la RSE, plusieurs outils sont utilisés, le code de conduite étant le plus répandu. Quant aux multiples parties prenantes de l’organisation, celle des travailleurs ne semble pas invitée à participer aux décisions de l’entreprise en matière de RSE, malgré les intérêts importants que les travailleurs et le syndicat peuvent posséder auprès de cette dernière. Notre recherche porte sur la convention collective en tant qu’outil de responsabilité sociale des entreprises. Nous nous intéressons à savoir si cet outil traditionnel en relations du travail pourrait être utilisé, tout comme un code de conduite, pour stimuler la participation des syndicale aux décisions de l’entreprise. À l’aide du Portrait statistique des conventions collectives analysées au Québec en 2006, nous avons validé la fréquence, le sujet ainsi que le niveau de participation syndicale dans les comités conjoints conventionnés en comparant les entreprises dites RSE et non RSE. Il s’est avéré qu’il n’y a pas plus de participation syndicale indiquée dans les conventions collectives d’entreprises RSE que dans celles non RSE. Cependant, notre analyse précise que deux outils RSE autres que le code de conduite adoptés par l’entreprise coïncident avec la participation syndicale, soit la signature d’un accord-cadre international et la participation au Pacte Mondial de l’ONU. / Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a concept referring to voluntarism, without unique definition, aiming to take into account interests of various company stakeholders. The main common characteristic is to institute principles that go beyond what the law establishes. In order for CSR to take place, several tools have been used, like the code of conduct which is the most widely used. As for one of the multiple corporate stakeholders, the workers don’t seem to be invited to participate in corporate decisions related to CSR, despite the major interests that they and the workers’ union might have in the company. Our research looks at the collective agreement as a tool for corporate social responsibility. We question ourselves to see if this traditional labour tool could be used, like the code of conduct, to confine unions’ participation in corporate decisions. With the Portrait statistique des conventions collectives analysées au Québec en 2006, we have validated the frequency, subject and participation level of unions in collective joint committees by comparing CSR and non CSR organizations. It appears that unions’ participation to corporate decisions is not higher in collective agreements of CSR organizations. Nevertheless, our analysis shows that two CSR tools other than a code of conduct adopted by the organization coincide with unions’ participation, that are the signature of a global framework agreement and participation to the UN Global Compact.

This study investigates the everyday practices of young children acting in their social worlds within the context of the school playground. It employs an ethnographic ethnomethodological approach using conversation analysis. In the context of child participation rights advanced by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and childhood studies, the study considers children’s social worlds and their participation agendas. The participants of the study were a group of young children in a preparatory year setting in a Queensland school. These children, aged 4 to 6 years, were videorecorded as they participated in their day-to-day activities in the classroom and in the playground. Data collection took place over a period of three months, with a total of 26 hours of video data. Episodes of the video-recordings were shown to small groups of children and to the teacher to stimulate conversations about what they saw on the video. The conversations were audio-recorded. This method acknowledged the child’s standpoint and positioned children as active participants in accounting for their relationships with others. These accounts are discussed as interactionally built comments on past joint experiences and provided a starting place for analysis of the video-recorded interaction. Four data chapters are presented in this thesis. Each data chapter investigates a different topic of interaction. The topics include how children use “telling” as a tactical tool in the management of interactional trouble, how children use their “ideas” as possessables to gain ownership of a game and the interactional matters that follow, how children account for interactional matters and bid for ownership of “whose idea” for the game and finally, how a small group of girls orientated to a particular code of conduct when accounting for their actions in a pretend game of “school”. Four key themes emerged from the analysis. The first theme addresses two arenas of action operating in the social world of children, pretend and real: the “pretend”, as a player in a pretend game, and the “real”, as a classroom member. These two arenas are intertwined. Through inferences to explicit and implicit “codes of conduct”, moral obligations are invoked as children attempt to socially exclude one another, build alliances and enforce their own social positions. The second theme is the notion of shared history. This theme addresses the history that the children reconstructed, and acts as a thread that weaves through their interactions, with implications for present and future relationships. The third theme is around ownership. In a shared context, such as the playground, ownership is a highly contested issue. Children draw on resources such as rules, their ideas as possessables, and codes of behaviour as devices to construct particular social and moral orders around owners of the game. These themes have consequences for children’s participation in a social group. The fourth theme, methodological in nature, shows how the researcher was viewed as an outsider and novice and was used as a resource by the children. This theme is used to inform adult-child relationships. The study was situated within an interest in participation rights for children and perspectives of children as competent beings. Asking children to account for their participation in playground activities situates children as analysers of their own social worlds and offers adults further information for understanding how children themselves construct their social interactions. While reporting on the experiences of one group of children, this study opens up theoretical questions about children’s social orders and these influences on their everyday practices. This thesis uncovers how children both participate in, and shape, their everyday social worlds through talk and interaction. It investigates the consequences that taken-for-granted activities of “playing the game” have for their social participation in the wider culture of the classroom. Consideration of this significance may assist adults to better understand and appreciate the social worlds of young children in the school playground.