Why Ethics and Good Corporate Practices Must Be Integral Part of Organisations in the South African Context?

Globally, the past decade experienced the collapse of many well established corporations like WorldCom, Enron, Brent Spar, and the difficulties encountered by Nike and GAP with the sourcing of their products from developing countries. More recently, the bankruptcy of the Lehmans Brothers and other financial institutions have sparked a huge anxiety from the public regarding the business environment. In South Africa, for the past fifteen years, there has been an increasing breakdown of public trust in the management of South African companies due to the lack of corporate governance and ethical practices. In essence, one must believe that any employee at middle or senior levels of the organisation is, in the broadest sense, presumed non guilty until proven otherwise. However, at the same time it is widespread public believe that these executives take improper actions to help themselves at the expense of the corporation. The question that anyone may pose is what is going wrong with all these companies and how the problem can be fixed? The answer is simple: the lack of corporate governance and ethical practices is at the root of all these problems, and the problem can only be fixed with the establishment and effective implementation of codes of Ethics and social responsibility. Therefore, why ethics must be integral part of organisations in the South African context? The aim of the present article is to present the importance of ethics and corporate practices in business in general and in more specifically in the South African context. In its first part, a glimpse definition of ethics will be developed, and thereafter the reasons for the need for South African companies to clearly do everything in their power to develop policies and practices with the objectives to rebuild the trust of the public