Exploring ethical culture: a case study in the South African insurance industry.

Abstract

There are many examples of unethical conduct in South Africa. In this article, an ethical culture in organisations is proposed as a countermeasure. An ethical culture prevents ethical lapses that might threaten the reputation and even the continued existence of organisations. A strong ethical culture promotes doing the “right thing”, and should be reflected in the behaviour and actions of management and employees, and in policies, procedures and decisions. It is important for organisations to know how strong their ethical culture is and to identify possible weaknesses. This implies the measurement of the ethical culture. Little evidence could be found of research conducted on this topic in South Africa. The purpose of the study was to explore ethical culture and to determine how it can be measured. The ethical culture of a JSE-listed company was quantitatively tested by means of a questionnaire and 203 employees participated. Results indicate an overwhelmingly positive ethical culture, which can be improved by attending to the workload of employees, allocation of resources, a procedure to provide feedback to whistle-blowers and rewarding staff for integrity. Although the empirical findings cannot be generalised, they can give other organisations an indication of issues that also might need attention.