M.A. / This study was set on making a survey of the current status of business ethics as academic field in Africa, as no comprehensive survey has yet been made. It is this need that prompted the main research problem namely: What is the current status of business ethics as an academic field in Africa? Which I translated into two sub-questions of which the first was a descriptive question: How has business ethics been institutionalised? And the other reflective in nature, What are the strengths and weaknesses of business ethics as an Academic field in Africa? In setting up the research aims, I wanted to determine: what African business ethics researchers, lecturers and facilitators of professional associations think business ethics is the extent and content of business courses in Africa, where they were taught, whether they were taught as sub-sections of other courses or as independent subjects, how many were taught on undergraduate level and how many on post-graduate level and whether students were getting academic credit for those courses. Looking at research I wanted to determine the amount and content of articles, books and unpublished dissertations on business ethics in Africa. I also wanted to determine the extent of the institutionalisation of business ethics, whether there were African journals dealing mainly with business ethics, how many centres, institutes and networks were dealing with what aspects business ethics in Africa and finally how many conference and seminars were addressing what issues of business ethics in Africa. After having established this, I finally wanted to determine whether business ethics was an academic field or discipline in Africa The results yielded the following information: A lot of misunderstanding still exists on the nature of business ethics: most of the researchers, lecturers and facilitators of professional business ethics associations focus mainly if not exclusively on the normative level of inquiry. This trend was reflected in their definitions, courses, research and central focus of the professional associations. There are 67 business ethics courses (55 undergraduate, 12 post-graduate) being taught at 30 departments in 4 African countries, namely Egypt, Kenya, Uganda and South Africa. Most courses focus on descriptive and normative ethics. I was able to locate and analyse 136 of the 167 articles, books and unpublished dissertations on business ethics in Africa. The content of the articles focus heavily on descriptive and normativeethical issues. The survey revealed 7 centres dealing with business ethics in Africa. They are located in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Uganda. Their main focus leans heavily towards normativeethical solutions. I found 4 institutes dealing with business ethics in one way or another. Not one of the institutes focus exclusively on business ethics. They are located in Egypt, South Africa and Uganda. As with the centres, the focus is heavily on normative-ethical solutions. Apart from the recently established Business Ethics Network of Africa (BEN-Africa) there are no other networks dealing with business ethics in Africa. Six recorded conferences / seminars were held in Kenya, South Africa and Uganda. The main focus seems to be on normative ethical issues. Business ethics is still an academic field in Africa but it has the potential for developing into an academic discipline with the associated independent courses, research, journals and professional associations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:2902 |
| Date | 21 August 2012 |
| Creators | Barkhuysen, Belinda |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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