Pan-Pacific Conference XXXIV. Designing New Business Models in Developing Economies

against external drivers such as theological ethics,
legal ethics and contractual ethics in order to
analyse how businesses behave in the free market.
Corporate governance structures: There is a
global trend to increase country-level governance as
a result of the financial crisis in 2008, various
business scandals and globalisation (Schiehll,
Ahmadjian & Filatotchev, 2014; Vorster & Marais,
2014) Corporate governance structures allow for
various industries to play by the same set of rules
where all players understand the boundaries within
which they can operate in that industry (Schiehll
etal, 2014). Development of compliance programs
in organisations is critical in avoiding more global
ethical problems (Weber & Wasieleski, 2013).The
spin off from increased governance, is that
companies have to comply with certain standards
and behave in a certain manner.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
It can be deduced from literature that ethics in an
organisation can be influenced by several variables
such as the organisational values, personal values of
employees as well as the governance structures of a
country. To investigate the effect that corporate
ethics and governance structures have on the
individuals within the organisation and how these
rules interact with individual’s personal ethics in
making decisions within the business context and
upkeep of an ethics culture.
Research question: Is ethical behaviour driven by
the middle managers view on ethics based on their
personal value system?
Primary objective: is to understand whether the
middle managers personal value system impacts on
the ethical behaviour in the organisation.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The most appropriate research paradigm to use in
studying human behaviour is the interpretivist
paradigm (Babbie & Mouton, 2001). Due to the
nature of the study and the investigation into human
relations with regards to ethics, a qualitative
research approach was applied.
Population and sample: Zigmund, Babin, Carr and
Griffin (2013) refer to a population as any complete
group. There are three levels of management in an
organisation (Koontz & Welhrich, 2010).
The population was the financial organisations in
Johannesburg and the sample was the middle level
management team in Johannesburg.
Research Instrument: Interviews were used to
obtain data from the respondents; the questions
were deduced from literature as well as derived
from the objective of the research.
Data collection: The researchers conducted six
interviews with middle managers and the interview
consisted of eight questions in order to have enough
data to look for trends in behaviour and gain an
understanding of the ethics environment in the
organisation. The interviews were recorded to aid in
the analysis of the data.
Data Analysis: Analysis took place in the form of a
narrative analysis (Easterby-Smith, Thorpe &
Jackson, 2008).
Ethical considerations;Due to the sensitive nature of
the research the organisation and respondents
identity has been omitted in the presentation of the
findings.
FINDINGS: Centered on the following five
themes:
Personal alignment of values with that of the
organzation. / Isolated incidents of unethical
behaviour does occur. /Consequence management
for incorrect behavior is vital. / Governance
structures enhance already positive intrinsic
behavior. /Managers in general behave in an ethical
manner.
Table 1: Respondents Demographics
Personal alignment of values with that of the
organisation
Respon A B C D E F
dent
Age 52 25 57 34 57 36
Years 22 2 36 3.5 11 1
in
Manag
erial
Positio
n
Gender Female Female Male Male Female Femal
e
Ethnic White African White Indian White White
Group
Are your values aligned to the values of the
organization and if yes which values resonate the
most with you?
The initial questioning aimed to establish if the
overall values of the organisation were aligned to
the middle managers’ personal value system. The
researchers found a high degree of correlation
between the organisations values and the personal
values of the managers. This theme was evident
throughout the interviews and the researchers found
that the organisation as a whole was one where
there is a strong awareness of the need to behave
ethically. This aligns to the literature that is
available with regards to the ethical behaviour that
is displayed by organisations and how it is impacted
by individuals (Gosenpud & Werner, 2015; Jones,
2015)
Respondents commented that the organisation was
led in a transparent and open way. This style
permeated throughout the organisation creating a
workplace that was, overall, a transparent and open
place in which to work. There were sufficient
avenues available to create awareness of how
employees and managers in the organisation should
behave, as well as processes in place to report any
non-compliance which could possibly occur. It was
noted by Respondents B and F that compliance and
ethics form an integral part of the appeal of the
company as an employer, with Respondent E
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