The ethical awareness of the leadership of South African business schools: Do they set the tone?

Abstract

This paper explores the ethical awareness of the leadership of South African business schools. A questionnaire was distributed electronically to the top leadership of these business schools. The biographical characteristics of respondents were analysed to develop an ethical awareness score for each respondent. This score was used to determine whether respondents’ ethical awareness was above average and whether ethical awareness was affected by level of qualification or teaching experience. The results indicate that the leadership of South African business schools seem not to be sufficiently ethically aware to ensure that their business schools contribute to improved business ethics education and ethical business practices.

School principals’ experiences of ethical leadership during times of accountability : complexities, dilemmas and dynamics.

“…The evidence provided above is supported by Bowen et al (2006) and Louw (2015) who assert that there is limited coverage of ethics in university training coursework especially in educational leadership. These scholars reveal that in other fields (business, medicine, and human services) students are exposed to ethics even though the scope is about two to three percent of the entire qualification.…”

“…Further, these scholars mention that educational leadership is lagging behind with regards to infusing ethics into institutions of higher learning training programmes, relative to other fields. These remarks were further supported by Louw (2015) who mentioned that ethics courses are generally one semester long and counted between two and three percent of the entire qualification in South African business schools.…”

“…This multifaceted nature of accountability intensifies the complexities and dilemmas of enacting ethical leadership for school principals. Sadly, some school principals seem to be unconscious of ethics and the web of accountability (Dladla, 2020;Dwangu & Mahlangu, 2021;Komba, 2017;Louw, 2015). In agreement with these researchers, Fransson and Grannas (2013) highlight the unfeasible search for the "right thing" by school principals choosing between conflicting options in relation to different stakeholders' views of educational leadership as the essence of dilemmas.…”

“…In an open system, the school interacts with its environment as well as its stakeholders and such interactions are the breath of life in the school; hence, ethical awareness becomes crucial (Lunenburg, 2010). Ethical awareness sets the tone for good ethical practice, while ethically conscious school principals infuse ethics into their leadership as school leaders (Louw, 2015).…”

“…However, research also indicates that these attempts are a mere exposure and are not intended to drill the students on the concept. For example, Louw (2015) reveals that a study by the Ethics Institute of South Africa in nine universities and across 224 educators from primary and secondary schools in Gauteng, Mpumalanga and North West Province, was conducted with the aim of determining whether ethics are incorporated in the curricula of schools and universities. The findings showed that ethic courses are generally one semester long and account for between 2% and 3% of the entire qualification in business schools.…”