Since the early 2000s there has been a growing awareness of the indivisible link between ethical conduct on the one hand and business practice on the other. A spate of corporate scandals, due to poor ethical management and deficient ethical decision making, has increased public scrutiny of organisational conduct. This indivisible link between ethics and management warranted investigation; consequently some aspects of managerial ethics in the corporate environment of South Africa were analysed and the role of training in sensitising managers to ethical decision making was examined. Both a comprehensive literature review and an empirical investigation were conducted in order to satisfy the objectives of the research study. The literature review provided insight into some of major concepts relating to managerial ethics, while also providing an overview of the global and South African ethical situation. It also revealed some pertinent current issues regarding managerial ethics training and ethics training in general. The empirical investigation was based on a quantitative research approach and was conducted through a questionnaire. A diverse group of managers who are all furthering their managerial studies at an accredited South African business school formed the study population. A total of 108 respondents completed the questionnaires, which were then statistically analysed, by the North-West University’s (NWU) Statistical Consultation Services. Both the literature review and the empirical investigation indicated a growing perception that ethics and ethical leadership is deteriorating, while the prevalence of ethical conduct breach has been on the increase. On a positive note there are strong indications that a favourable climate is being created in South African organisations, by the establishment of formal ethical codes and the development of business values. However, further investigation revealed that while formal policies and codes are in place, the implementation of these policies is lacking. A lack of understanding of the importance of ethical management was also identified, along with indications that current managerial training does not provide managers with the practical tools for real world application of ethical codes. Recommendations regarding possible action steps to start bridging the gap between the stated business values and ethics codes and the physical implementation of these guidelines are made, along with suggestions for further research. / Thesis (MBA)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

Since the early 2000s there has been a growing awareness of the indivisible link between ethical conduct on the one hand and business practice on the other. A spate of corporate scandals, due to poor ethical management and deficient ethical decision making, has increased public scrutiny of organisational conduct. This indivisible link between ethics and management warranted investigation; consequently some aspects of managerial ethics in the corporate environment of South Africa were analysed and the role of training in sensitising managers to ethical decision making was examined. Both a comprehensive literature review and an empirical investigation were conducted in order to satisfy the objectives of the research study. The literature review provided insight into some of major concepts relating to managerial ethics, while also providing an overview of the global and South African ethical situation. It also revealed some pertinent current issues regarding managerial ethics training and ethics training in general. The empirical investigation was based on a quantitative research approach and was conducted through a questionnaire. A diverse group of managers who are all furthering their managerial studies at an accredited South African business school formed the study population. A total of 108 respondents completed the questionnaires, which were then statistically analysed, by the North-West University’s (NWU) Statistical Consultation Services. Both the literature review and the empirical investigation indicated a growing perception that ethics and ethical leadership is deteriorating, while the prevalence of ethical conduct breach has been on the increase. On a positive note there are strong indications that a favourable climate is being created in South African organisations, by the establishment of formal ethical codes and the development of business values. However, further investigation revealed that while formal policies and codes are in place, the implementation of these policies is lacking. A lack of understanding of the importance of ethical management was also identified, along with indications that current managerial training does not provide managers with the practical tools for real world application of ethical codes. Recommendations regarding possible action steps to start bridging the gap between the stated business values and ethics codes and the physical implementation of these guidelines are made, along with suggestions for further research. / Thesis (MBA)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013

Business schools have been under scrutiny over the last few years with regard to the type of manager leaders that they produce. This is because the business sector has suffered significantly, both financially and in terms of global reputation due to the unethical conduct of those in management and leadership of the organisations. The scandals that rocked the world in recent times, from business entities such as Enron and Tiger Brands provide examples of the unethical behaviour in the day–to–day running of business and further bring forth the essential need for an in–depth study in the behaviour of the manager–leaders. These manager–leaders are said to be graduates from business schools around the world. Researchers and business schools have started to put emphasis on the importance of ethical behaviour in manager–leaders. Business schools in particular have introduced and included business law and ethics as one of the modules in the curriculum of the MBA program so as to inculcate the ethical conduct in the present and emerging manager–leaders in organisations. Therefore, this study is based on the evaluation of the ethical behaviour of the MBA students at a selected business school in South Africa. The subjects of this study (MBA students) were subjected to questionnaires that prompted their convictions with regard to ethical behaviour at personal (individual) level and on company level as well. The results of the study indicated that the MBA students at this selected business school are ethical in behaviour at both individual and company levels, hence complied with principles that are guidelines in the renowned King reports. However, a comparative study with other business schools will be necessary so as to measure the relative ethical behaviour of the MBA students at other business schools. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Business schools have been under scrutiny over the last few years with regard to the type of manager leaders that they produce. This is because the business sector has suffered significantly, both financially and in terms of global reputation due to the unethical conduct of those in management and leadership of the organisations. The scandals that rocked the world in recent times, from business entities such as Enron and Tiger Brands provide examples of the unethical behaviour in the day–to–day running of business and further bring forth the essential need for an in–depth study in the behaviour of the manager–leaders. These manager–leaders are said to be graduates from business schools around the world. Researchers and business schools have started to put emphasis on the importance of ethical behaviour in manager–leaders. Business schools in particular have introduced and included business law and ethics as one of the modules in the curriculum of the MBA program so as to inculcate the ethical conduct in the present and emerging manager–leaders in organisations. Therefore, this study is based on the evaluation of the ethical behaviour of the MBA students at a selected business school in South Africa. The subjects of this study (MBA students) were subjected to questionnaires that prompted their convictions with regard to ethical behaviour at personal (individual) level and on company level as well. The results of the study indicated that the MBA students at this selected business school are ethical in behaviour at both individual and company levels, hence complied with principles that are guidelines in the renowned King reports. However, a comparative study with other business schools will be necessary so as to measure the relative ethical behaviour of the MBA students at other business schools. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Cette thèse consiste en trois recherches sur le financement bancaire des entreprises. Le premier essai met l’accent sur l’influence des relations bancaires et des connexions politiques sur l’accès des entreprises au crédit. Il utilise un ensemble de données collectées manuellement sur les moyennes entreprises vietnamiennes pour montrer que les relations bancaires (durée de la relation avec la banque principale et le nombre de banques) et les connexions politiques ont des effets complémentaires sur la maximisation de la disponibilité du crédit pour les entreprises. Cette recherche a des implications politiques pour les économies émergentes caractérisées par la corruption gouvernementale locale ; elle suggère que les décideurs politiques devraient préférer les systèmes bancaires transactionnels aux systèmes bancaires relationnels, et elle expose le côté obscur des relations bancaires. Le deuxième essai examine les effets des connexions politiques et de la corruption locale sur les structures du pool bancaire des entreprises. En utilisant le même ensemble de données que dans notre premier essai, nous constatons que les entreprises politiquement connectées ont tendance à établir leurs relations bancaires principales avec les banques connectées. Nous constatons également que les entreprises connectées réduisent le nombre de banques et la diversité des types de propriétés des banques dans leurs pools bancaires lorsqu’elles établissent des relations avec les banques connectées ; ces entreprises maintiennent ces structures de pool bancaire lorsque la corruption est répandue dans leur province d’origine. Les résultats montrent que la corruption locale est associée positivement au nombre de banques et à la diversification des types de propriétés des banques. Le dernier essai explore la structure du pool bancaire des entreprises dans les économies émergentes caractérisées par la corruption. Dans le modèle théorique proposé, les gestionnaires d’entreprise maximisent une fonction d’utilité attendue qui dépend à la fois de la valeur de l’entreprise et de la consommation personnelle. En fonction du poids qu’ils attribuent à chaque composante, les gestionnaires choisissent parmi trois structures du pool bancaire pour combiner un certain nombre de banques et le choix d’une banque principale plus ou moins corrompue. Le test de ce modèle repose sur un riche ensemble de données provenant d’entreprises vietnamiennes que dans notre premier essai. Les résultats confirment que les entreprises et les banques sont de même niveau d’intégrité. En outre, les entreprises ont tendance à augmenter le nombre de banques dans le pool bancaire lorsqu’elles ne peuvent pas établir une relation avec une banque principale souhaitable. / This thesis consists of three research on the firms’ bank financing. The first essay focuses the influences of bank–firm relationships and political connections on firms’ access to credit. It uses a manually collected data set of Vietnamese medium-sized enterprises to show that bank–firm relationships (length of relationship with main bank and number of banks) and political connections have complementary effects on maximizing firms’ availability of credit. This research has policy implications for emerging economies characterized by local government corruption; it suggests that policymakers should prefer transactional banking systems to relationship banking systems, and it exposes the dark side of bank–firm relationships. The second essay investigates the effects of political connections and local corruption on the structures of firms’ bank pools. Using the same data set with our first essay, it finds that politically connected firms tend to establish their main bank relationships with connected banks. It also finds that connected firms reduce their numbers of banks and their diversity of bank ownership types in their bank pools when they achieve main bank relationships with connected banks; such firms maintain these bank pool structures when corruption is prevalent in their home provinces. Results demonstrate that local corruption is associated positively with number of banks and diversification of bank ownership types. The last essay explores the structure of firms’ bank pools in emerging economies characterized by corruption. In the proposed theoretical model, firm managers maximize an expected utility function that depends on both firm value and personal consumption. According to the weight they assign to each component, managers choose among three bank pool structures to combine some number of banks and the choice of a main bank that is more or less corrupt. The test of this model relies on the same rich data set with our first essay. The results confirm that firms and banks match, in terms of their levels of integrity. Moreover, firms tend to increase the number of banks in the bank pool when they cannot achieve a relationship with a desirable main bank.