VALIDITY OF THE CORPORATE ETHICAL VIRTUE MODEL (CEV) IN A SOUTH AFRICAN CONTEXT: A CASE STUDY
Abstract
Ethics is reflected in the culture of an organisation. If necessary, the status of the ethical culture in an organisation can be measured. The purpose of this study was to identify an instrument that can measure ethical culture, and to establish its validity and reliability in a South African context. The Corporate Ethical Virtue Model was identified, as its validity had been subjected to reliability tests within a South African insurance company. The instrument’s reliability was confirmed through Cronbach Alpha coefficients. The article concludes that the CEV model has application value within the context in which it was tested.Downloads
References
Angermund, N. and Plant, K. 2017. A framework for managing and assessing ethics in Namibia: An internal audit perspective. African Journal of Business Ethics. 11(1): 1–22.
Appelbaum, S.H., Vigneault, L., Walker, E. and Shapiro, B.T. 2009. (Good) corporate governance and the strategic integration of meso ethics. Social Responsibility Journal. 5(4): 525–539.
Ardichvili, A. and Jondle, D. 2009. Ethical business cultures: A literature review and implications for HRD. Human Resource Development Review. 8(2): 223–244.
Ardichvili, A., Mitchell, J.A. and Jondle, D. 2009. Characteristics of ethical business cultures. Journal of Business Ethics. 85: 445–451.
Baker, T.L., Hunt, T.G. and Andrews, M.C. 2006. Promoting ethical behavior and organizational citizenship behaviors: The influence of corporate ethical values. Journal of Business Research. 59: 849–857.
Belak, J. 2013. Corporate governance and the practice of business ethics in slovenia. Systemic Practice and Action Research. 26: 527–535.
Booysen, P.D. 2016. Is it time to recommit to ethical leadership in SA? [Online], Available: http://www.kr.co.za/_blog/knowledge-resources/post/is-it-time-to-recommit-to-ethical-leadership-in-sa/ [2016, August 15].
Brown, T. 2006. Confirmatory Factor Analysis for Applied Research. 2nd ed. New York: The Guilford express. [Online], Available: http://www.kharazmi-statistics.ir/Uploads/Public/book/Methodology in the Social Sciences.pdf [2017, June 02].
Collier, J. 1995. Business Ethics Research : Shaping the Agenda. A European Review. 4(1): 6–12.
DeBode, J.D., Armenakis, A.A., Feild, H.S. and Walker, A.G. 2013. Assessing Ethical Organizational Culture: Refinement of a Scale. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. 49(4): 460–484.
Deloitte. 2016. King IV Report on Corporate Governance. [Online], Available: https://www2.deloitte.com/za/en/pages/africa-centre-for-corporate-governance/articles/kingiv-report-on-corporate-governance.html [2016, November 08].
Von Eck, C. 2016. Are South African organisations ethical? Institute of Internal Auditors South Africa [Online], Available: http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.iiasa.org.za/resource/collection/DA000F53-1DD3-464E-BB49-91D32F489587/Are South African organisations ethical.pdf [2018, March 26].
Eisenbeiss, S.A., van Knippenberg, D. and Fahrbach, C.M. 2014. Doing Well by Doing Good? Analyzing the Relationship Between CEO Ethical Leadership and Firm Performance. Journal of Business Ethics. 635–651.
Ethics Resource Centre. 2010. The Importance of Ethical Culture: Increasing Trust and Driving Down Risks: Supplemental research brief. Washington: Ethics Resource Center.
Ethics Resource Centre. 2012. National business ethics survey ® of Fortune 500 ® employees: An investigation into the State of ethics at America’s most powerful companies. Washington: Ethics Resource Centre.
Financial Intelligence Centre. 2012. Anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing legislation. Pretoria. [Online], Available: https://www.fic.gov.za/Documents/FIC Act Booklet 202012.pdf.
Fraedrich, J., Ferrell, O.C. and Ferrell, L. 2013. Ethical decision making for business: A Managerial Appraoch. 9th ed. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
Groenewald, L. 2016. The South African Business Ethics Survey 2016. Pretoria.
Groenewald, L. and Geerts, S. 2013. The South African Business Ethics Survey. Pretoria.
Huhtala, M., Feldt, T., Lämsä, A.M., Mauno, S. and Kinnunen, U. 2011. Does the Ethical Culture of Organisations Promote Managers’ Occupational Well-Being? Investigating Indirect Links via Ethical Strain. Journal of Business Ethics. 101: 231–247.
Huhtala, M., Feldt, T., Hyvonen, K. and Mauno, S. 2013. Ethical Organisational Culture as a Context for Managers’ Personal Work Goals. Journal of Business Ethics. 114(2): 265–282.
Irwin, J. 2011. Doing Business in South Africa: An overview of ethical aspects. [Online], Available: http://www.ethicsa.org/phocadownloadpap/Research_Reports/IBE_South Africa 2011.pdf [2017, September 21].
Jalil, A., Azam, F. and Rahman, M.K. 2010. Implementation Mechanism of Ethics in Business Organizations. International Business Research. 3(4):145–155. [Online], Available: http://search.proquest.com/docview/822629365?accountid=14549%5Cnhttp://hl5yy6xn2p.search.serialssolutions.com/?genre=article&sid=ProQ:&atitle=Implementation+Mechanism+of+Ethics+in+Business+Organizations&title=International+Business+Research&issn=19139004&.
Johannesburg Stock Exchange. 2013. Listed Companies - JSE. [Online], Available: https://www.jse.co.za/current-companies/companies-and-financial-instruments [2013, September 10].
Jondle, D., Ardichvili, A. and Mitchell, J. 2014. Modeling ethical business culture: Development of the ethical business culture survey and its use to validate the cebc model of ethical business culture. Journal of Business Ethics. 119(1): 29–43.
Kangas, M., Muotka, J., Huhtala, M., Mäkikangas, A. and Feldt, T. 2017. Is the Ethical Culture of the Organization Associated with Sickness Absence ? A Multilevel Analysis in a Public Sector Organization. Journal of Business Ethics. 140(1): 131–145.
Kaptein, M. 2008. Developing and testing a measure for the ethical culture of organizations: The corporate ethical virtues model. Journal of Organizational Behavior. 29(7): 923–947.
Kaptein, M. 2009. Ethics Programs and Ethical Culture : A Next Step in Unraveling Their Multi-Faceted Relationship. Journal of Business Ethics. 89: 261–281.
Kaptein, M. 2011. Understanding unethical behavior by unraveling ethical culture. Human Relations. 64(6): 843–869.
Kaptein, M. 2015. The effectiveness of ethics programs: The role of scope, composition, and sequence. Journal of Business Ethics. 132(2): 415–431.
KPMG. 2016. Draft King IV released for public comment. [Online], Available: https://home.kpmg.com/za/en/home/insights/2016/04/draft-king-iv-released-for-public-comment.html [2016, October 06].
Llopis, J., Reyes Gonzalez, M. and Gasco, J.L. 2007. Corporate governance and organisational culture: The role of ethics officers. International Journal of Disclosure and Governance. 4(2): 96–105.
Majluf, N.S. and Navarrete, C.M. 2011. A two-component compliance and ethics program model: An empirical application to Chilean corporations. Journal of Business Ethics. 100: 567–579.
Mcleod, M.S., Payne, G.T. and Evert, R.E. 2016. Organizational ethics research: A systematic review of methods and analytical techniques. Journal of Business Ethics. 134: 429–443.
Meinert, D. 2014. Creating an ethical Culture. [Online], Available: https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/pages/0414-ethical-workplace-culture.aspx [2016, September 20].
Newsom, J. 2005. Some clarifications and recommendations on fit indices. USP. 655:123–133.
Pierce, V. and Kennedy-Good, S. 2009. King III – what does it all mean?! [Online], Available: http://www.polity.org.za/article/king-iii-what-does-it-all-mean-2009-12-01 [2010, August 13].
Pietersen, J. and Maree, K. 2016. Standardisation of a questionnsire. In 2nd ed. K. Maree (ed.). Pretoria: Van Schaik First steps in research. 238–247.
Punt, W.J., Groenewald, L. and Geerts, S. 2010. South African Corporate Ethics Indicator. Pretoria.
Riivari, E. and Lämsä, A.M. 2014. Does it Pay to Be Ethical? Examining the Relationship Between Organisations’ Ethical Culture and Innovativeness. Journal of Business Ethics. 124(1): 1–17.
Rossouw, G. 2011. The Sub-Sahara African survey of Business Ethics as field of teaching, training and research. African Journal of Business Ethics. 5(2): 61–65.
Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. 2012. Research methods for business students. 6th ed. London: Pearson.
Schein, E.H. 1984. Coming to a New Awareness of Organizational Culture. Sloan Management Review. 25(2): 3–16.
Smit, A.M. and Bierman, E.J. 2017. An evaluation of the reporting on ethics and integrity of selected listed motor vehicle companies. African Journal of Business Ethics. 11(1): 82–102.
Smurthwaite, M. 2011. Business Ethics as field of training, teaching and research in Southern Africa. African Journal of Business Ethics. 5(2): 81–88.
The Economist Intelligence Unit. 2012. Financial services report: March 2012. [Online], Available: http://www.eiu.com/FileHandler.ashx?issue_id=1038929688 &mode=pdf [2013, August 10].
Thomson, M., MacInnis, D.J. and Whan Park, C. 2005. The Ties That Bind: Measuring the Strength of Consumers’ Emotional Attachments to Brands. Journal of Consumer Psychology. 15(1): 77–91.
Timonen, L. and Luoma-Aho, V. 2010. Sector-based corporate citizenship. Business Ethics: A European Review. 19(1): 1–13.
Trevino, L.K., Butterfield, K.D. and McCabe, D.L. 1998. The ethical context in organizations: Influences on employee attitudes and behaviors. Business Ethics Quarterly. 8(3): 447–476. [Online], Available: http://0-web.b.ebscohost.com.oasis.unisa.ac.za/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=2&sid=af1c52a5-86d5-4ef0-8087-76ba4b2ddc18%40sessionmgr101 [2017, April 06].
Treviño, L.K. and Nelson, K.A. 2011. Managing business ethics: straight talk about how to do it right. 5th ed. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Valentine, S., Fleischman, G. and Godkin, L. 2015. Rogues in the ranks of selling organizations: using corporate ethics to manage workplace bullying and job satisfaction. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management. 35(2):143–163.
World Economic Forum. 2016. Competitiveness Rankings. [Online], Available: http://reports.weforum.org/global-competitiveness-report-2015-2016/competitiveness-rankings/ [2016, November 09].
Van Wyk, I. 2014. Ethical Culture: A study at a South African insurance company. Unpublished MCom Dissertation. University of South Africa: Pretoria.
Van Wyk, I. and Badenhorst-Weiss, J. 2017. Exploring ethical culture: A case study in the South African insurance industry. Journal of Contemporary Management. 14: 330–361.
Yin, R.K. 2014. Case Study Research: Design and Methods. 5th ed. SAGE Publications.
van Zyl, E. 2012. Utilising human resource management in developing an ethical corporate culture. African Journal of Business Ethics. 6(1): 50–55.
This journal is an open access journal, and the authors and journal should be properly acknowledged, when works are cited.
Authors may use the publisher's version for teaching purposes, in books, theses, dissertations, conferences and conference papers.
A copy of the authors’ publisher's version may also be hosted on the following websites:
- Non-commercial personal homepage or blog.
- Institutional webpage.
- Authors Institutional Repository.
The following notice should accompany such a posting on the website: “This is an electronic version of an article published in the African Journal of Business Ethics, Volume XXX, number XXX, pages XXX–XXX”, DOI. Authors should also supply a hyperlink to the original paper or indicate where the original paper (http://ajobe.journals.ac.za/pub) may be found.
The following Creative Commons license applies:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
