Reon Matemane, Tankiso Moloi, Michael Adelowotan, Pallab Kumar Biswas
Despite the increasing importance of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, it is not fully understood whether companies consider these factors when designing compensation plans for their directors. This study investigated the extent to which directors’ remuneration integrates ESG factors. The study sample is made up of JSE-listed companies for the period 2015 to 2021. The estimated generalised least squares regression technique was used to analyse the data. The results show the shift towards the integration of ESG factors in directors’ compensation plans. It should be established which ESG factors are pertinent in the South African context.
{"title":"The use of non-financial performance metrics in determining directors’ remuneration: The case of listed companies in South Africa","authors":"Reon Matemane, Tankiso Moloi, Michael Adelowotan, Pallab Kumar Biswas","doi":"10.15249/17-1-301","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15249/17-1-301","url":null,"abstract":"Despite the increasing importance of environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors, it is not fully understood whether companies consider these factors when designing compensation plans for their directors. This study investigated the extent to which directors’ remuneration integrates ESG factors. The study sample is made up of JSE-listed companies for the period 2015 to 2021. The estimated generalised least squares regression technique was used to analyse the data. The results show the shift towards the integration of ESG factors in directors’ compensation plans. It should be established which ESG factors are pertinent in the South African context.","PeriodicalId":42425,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Business Ethics","volume":"94 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135913146","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Inadequate legal provisions in South African state law have left whistleblowers vulnerable. Despite the existence of the Protected Disclosures Act (and its amendment) aimed at safeguarding whistleblowers, the law has numerous loopholes. The participants in this qualitative study expressed the view that the law is indeed ineffective. While calls are being made to amend state law for adequate whistleblower protection, such efforts would be futile unless provisions are adapted from reliable instruments for implementation in the South African context. This article recommends incorporating provisions from the Serbian Law on Protection of Whistleblowers as a means of offering adequate protection to South African whistleblowers.
{"title":"The predicament of the unprotected: Why lack-lustre legislation fails South African whistleblowers","authors":"Ugljesa Radulovic","doi":"10.15249/17-1-333","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15249/17-1-333","url":null,"abstract":"Inadequate legal provisions in South African state law have left whistleblowers vulnerable. Despite the existence of the Protected Disclosures Act (and its amendment) aimed at safeguarding whistleblowers, the law has numerous loopholes. The participants in this qualitative study expressed the view that the law is indeed ineffective. While calls are being made to amend state law for adequate whistleblower protection, such efforts would be futile unless provisions are adapted from reliable instruments for implementation in the South African context. This article recommends incorporating provisions from the Serbian Law on Protection of Whistleblowers as a means of offering adequate protection to South African whistleblowers.","PeriodicalId":42425,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Business Ethics","volume":"80 8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135914289","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
IIn this article, I use autoethnography to share my personal experiences with Njangis in Cameroon, Central Africa. ‘Njangi’ is an old business practice where members of a community contribute money to assist one another turn by turn. There is literature on the concept of Njangis, however, autoethnography has not been used to share the rich African values that underpin this concept. Using reflexivity as a postmodernist technique,I describe my experiences with Njangis as both a child and adult, while contrasting this with a conventional ‘Western’ banking system. The aim of this emancipatory exercise is to give voice to an African practice as it relates to business and ethics.
{"title":"From feasting to fasting: An autoethnography of Njangis","authors":"Chimene Nukunah","doi":"10.15249/17-1-320","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15249/17-1-320","url":null,"abstract":"IIn this article, I use autoethnography to share my personal experiences with Njangis in Cameroon, Central Africa. ‘Njangi’ is an old business practice where members of a community contribute money to assist one another turn by turn. There is literature on the concept of Njangis, however, autoethnography has not been used to share the rich African values that underpin this concept. Using reflexivity as a postmodernist technique,I describe my experiences with Njangis as both a child and adult, while contrasting this with a conventional ‘Western’ banking system. The aim of this emancipatory exercise is to give voice to an African practice as it relates to business and ethics.","PeriodicalId":42425,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Business Ethics","volume":"22 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135912893","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In the past decade, Ethiopia has demonstrated a strong ideological convention to the East-Asian model of ‘developmental state’, which stands for state-led industrialisation as its underlying industrial policy premise. Nevertheless, the labour rights externalities of this industrial policymaking have been overlooked in the existing academic and practical policy debates. Hence, using qualitative empirical data, the article attempts to address the research gap by analysing why and how Ethiopia’s state-led industrialisation and the corporate behaviours of apparel-exporting firms, as well as their respective global brand buyers, have contributed to the existing poverty wages and repressive practices against the associational rights of local industrial workers at those selected apparel-exporting industrial parks of the country. The maxim of industrialisation with a human face has increasingly become a promising alternative to the neoclassical intellectual view of labour relations following its fundamentals towards achieving a more sustainable industrial development in a given state. In light of this human right imperative, the finding revealed Ethiopia’s stateled industrialisation has firmly embraced strong business-state alliances, thereby curbing the power of local industrial workers. The Ethiopian government employs diverse de facto or de jure labour control mechanisms across those selected apparel-exporting industrial parks of the country. This is manifested through poverty wages and repressive measures todeny the associational rights of workers. Further, the flawed Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of employing firms and their respective global brands have contributed to the ongoing labour abuses across those selected apparel-exporting firms. Hence, Ethiopia’s industrial policy is expected to navigate a reasonable balance between facilitating industrial catch-up and ensuring labour standards for more viable and sustainable labour relations.
{"title":"Strong business–state alliances at the expense of labour rights in Ethiopia’s apparel-exporting industrial parks","authors":"Mohammed Seid Ali, Solomon Molla Ademe","doi":"10.15249/17-1-276","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15249/17-1-276","url":null,"abstract":"In the past decade, Ethiopia has demonstrated a strong ideological convention to the East-Asian model of ‘developmental state’, which stands for state-led industrialisation as its underlying industrial policy premise. Nevertheless, the labour rights externalities of this industrial policymaking have been overlooked in the existing academic and practical policy debates. Hence, using qualitative empirical data, the article attempts to address the research gap by analysing why and how Ethiopia’s state-led industrialisation and the corporate behaviours of apparel-exporting firms, as well as their respective global brand buyers, have contributed to the existing poverty wages and repressive practices against the associational rights of local industrial workers at those selected apparel-exporting industrial parks of the country. The maxim of industrialisation with a human face has increasingly become a promising alternative to the neoclassical intellectual view of labour relations following its fundamentals towards achieving a more sustainable industrial development in a given state. In light of this human right imperative, the finding revealed Ethiopia’s stateled industrialisation has firmly embraced strong business-state alliances, thereby curbing the power of local industrial workers. The Ethiopian government employs diverse de facto or de jure labour control mechanisms across those selected apparel-exporting industrial parks of the country. This is manifested through poverty wages and repressive measures todeny the associational rights of workers. Further, the flawed Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) of employing firms and their respective global brands have contributed to the ongoing labour abuses across those selected apparel-exporting firms. Hence, Ethiopia’s industrial policy is expected to navigate a reasonable balance between facilitating industrial catch-up and ensuring labour standards for more viable and sustainable labour relations.","PeriodicalId":42425,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Business Ethics","volume":"282 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135799174","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
SMEs are the driving force of economies. However, they face challenges that affect their long-term survival, such as developing ethical business environments. Business ethicsrelated research is underdeveloped in SMEs, thus limiting our understanding of business ethics in SMEs. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate how business ethics is conceptualised in SMEs, using the Delphi Technique. In SMEs, business ethics is viewed as doing the right thing, having integrity, being transparent, trustworthy, and behaving responsibly towards internal and external parties. The contribution of this article is that business ethics is perceived as upholding quality, being transparent and trustworthy.
{"title":"Perspectives on business ethics in South African small and medium enterprises","authors":"Ireze Van Wyk, P. Venter","doi":"10.15249/16-1-285","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15249/16-1-285","url":null,"abstract":"SMEs are the driving force of economies. However, they face challenges that affect their long-term survival, such as developing ethical business environments. Business ethicsrelated research is underdeveloped in SMEs, thus limiting our understanding of business ethics in SMEs. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate how business ethics is conceptualised in SMEs, using the Delphi Technique. In SMEs, business ethics is viewed as doing the right thing, having integrity, being transparent, trustworthy, and behaving responsibly towards internal and external parties. The contribution of this article is that business ethics is perceived as upholding quality, being transparent and trustworthy.","PeriodicalId":42425,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Business Ethics","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67334321","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
If it can be argued that companies should engage with social justice advocacy, what factors might deter them from doing so? This question is pursued in a qualitative research study with participants from corporate and social justice organisations. Six inhibiting factors are identified: a lack of understanding of social justice concepts; fear of reputational risk; short-term profit orientation; a compliance mindset; disconnectedness from operating environment; and recognition that business purpose will determine its societal engagement. This research extends the theoretical and practice boundaries of corporate social responsibility, while also advocating for an intensified engagement of management education with social justice in practice.
{"title":"Towards an understanding of corporate (dis)engagement with social justice advocacy","authors":"Louise Jones, A. Smit","doi":"10.15249/16-1-292","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15249/16-1-292","url":null,"abstract":"If it can be argued that companies should engage with social justice advocacy, what factors might deter them from doing so? This question is pursued in a qualitative research study with participants from corporate and social justice organisations. Six inhibiting factors are identified: a lack of understanding of social justice concepts; fear of reputational risk; short-term profit orientation; a compliance mindset; disconnectedness from operating environment; and recognition that business purpose will determine its societal engagement. This research extends the theoretical and practice boundaries of corporate social responsibility, while also advocating for an intensified engagement of management education with social justice in practice.","PeriodicalId":42425,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Business Ethics","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67334187","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Occupational health and safety (OHS), as a fundamental human right, forms the basis of the obligation of employers to employees, requiring employers to do what is right. Responsible management practices encompass cognisance of sustainability, responsibility as well as legal, financial and moral aspects related to OHS compliance. As point of departure, an overview of core OHS criteria for small businesses is provided, with reference to awareness of these criteria in the G20 countries. This article utilises quantitative and qualitative data analysis to examine the reasons why small business owners/managers comply with occupational health and safety directives, such as the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHS Act) and the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA) in South Africa, determine if such reasons for compliance culminate in actual compliance, and determine the perceived effect of direct and indirect costs of OHS incidents. A total of 350 small business owners/managers took part in this study. The findings indicate that whilst small business owners/managers realise the rationale behind OHS compliance in terms of moral, legal and financial components, moral aspects related to OHS compliance are deemed most important. Small business owners/managers thus seem to realise the importance of OHS compliance. However, when it comes to adhering to their responsibility in terms of general safety regulations of the OHS Act and registration with the Compensation Fund as specified in the COIDA (as examples of actual compliance), small business owners/managers’ compliance does not reflect such realisation. A model to enhance OHS standards in small businesses, encompassing legal, moral and financial rationales, is proposed.
{"title":"Occupational health and safety in small businesses: The rationale behind compliance","authors":"Elriza Esterhuyzen","doi":"10.15249/16-1-287","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15249/16-1-287","url":null,"abstract":"Occupational health and safety (OHS), as a fundamental human right, forms the basis of the obligation of employers to employees, requiring employers to do what is right. Responsible management practices encompass cognisance of sustainability, responsibility as well as legal, financial and moral aspects related to OHS compliance. As point of departure, an overview of core OHS criteria for small businesses is provided, with reference to awareness of these criteria in the G20 countries. This article utilises quantitative and qualitative data analysis to examine the reasons why small business owners/managers comply with occupational health and safety directives, such as the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHS Act) and the Compensation for Occupational Injuries and Diseases Act (COIDA) in South Africa, determine if such reasons for compliance culminate in actual compliance, and determine the perceived effect of direct and indirect costs of OHS incidents. A total of 350 small business owners/managers took part in this study. The findings indicate that whilst small business owners/managers realise the rationale behind OHS compliance in terms of moral, legal and financial components, moral aspects related to OHS compliance are deemed most important. Small business owners/managers thus seem to realise the importance of OHS compliance. However, when it comes to adhering to their responsibility in terms of general safety regulations of the OHS Act and registration with the Compensation Fund as specified in the COIDA (as examples of actual compliance), small business owners/managers’ compliance does not reflect such realisation. A model to enhance OHS standards in small businesses, encompassing legal, moral and financial rationales, is proposed.","PeriodicalId":42425,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Business Ethics","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67333958","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Critical studies have rightly faulted mainstream HRM for its failure to account for the meaning of being human under regimes of HRM. This article advances the field in this regard by drawing on African and broader black theological reflection on the meaning of being human, and by using visual research methods to interrogate the extent to which workplaces respect human dignity. Fifty-five (55) visual timeline interviews were conducted in a range of workplaces in the north-east of England. Data showed that allowing autonomy and freedom, mediating audit regimes, contractual affirmation, and creating communities of care were the key factors whose presence created humanising workplaces and whose absence signalled dehumanising ones. This research allows a richer understanding of structures and processes that produce either humanising or dehumanising workplaces.
{"title":"Being ‘human’ under regimes of Human Resource Management: Using black theology to illuminate humanisation and dehumanisation in the workplace","authors":"N. Megoran","doi":"10.15249/16-1-290","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15249/16-1-290","url":null,"abstract":"Critical studies have rightly faulted mainstream HRM for its failure to account for the meaning of being human under regimes of HRM. This article advances the field in this regard by drawing on African and broader black theological reflection on the meaning of being human, and by using visual research methods to interrogate the extent to which workplaces respect human dignity. Fifty-five (55) visual timeline interviews were conducted in a range of workplaces in the north-east of England. Data showed that allowing autonomy and freedom, mediating audit regimes, contractual affirmation, and creating communities of care were the key factors whose presence created humanising workplaces and whose absence signalled dehumanising ones. This research allows a richer understanding of structures and processes that produce either humanising or dehumanising workplaces.","PeriodicalId":42425,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Business Ethics","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67334075","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The high rate of inequality in South Africa is rooted in colonial dispossession and racial exploitation, and still runs primarily along the racial divide. Policy initiatives taken to redress past economic injustices through the black economic empowerment (BEE) have failed to bring economic transformation. Using the twin lenses of epistemic violence and racial capitalism, this study analyses how entangled interests aimed to co-opt the ruling party elite by the apartheid-era business elite led to the BEE impasse. The pervasiveness of cultural alienation in BEE failure suggests that a shift to restorative justice is necessary to break from the impasse.
{"title":"Racial capitalism, ruling elite business entanglement and the impasse of black economic empowerment policy in South Africa","authors":"A. Habiyaremye","doi":"10.15249/16-1-298","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15249/16-1-298","url":null,"abstract":"The high rate of inequality in South Africa is rooted in colonial dispossession and racial exploitation, and still runs primarily along the racial divide. Policy initiatives taken to redress past economic injustices through the black economic empowerment (BEE) have failed to bring economic transformation. Using the twin lenses of epistemic violence and racial capitalism, this study analyses how entangled interests aimed to co-opt the ruling party elite by the apartheid-era business elite led to the BEE impasse. The pervasiveness of cultural alienation in BEE failure suggests that a shift to restorative justice is necessary to break from the impasse.","PeriodicalId":42425,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Business Ethics","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67334188","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The ethical behavior has long been a subject of the strategic communication discipline, but in South Africa, there are scarce empirical researches of ethical practice to date. In this paper through interviews with ten South African strategic communication practitioners in diverse organisations. We examine what constitutes ethical communication and the roles of practitioners in guiding the organisation toward considering ethics during a crisis. Findings reveal ten moral compass roles which are categorized into ethical counsel and advocacy role types. Although marked with legal, leaders/clients who want practitioners to compromise on ethical counsel roles, practitioners were defining organisation's ethics role.
{"title":"A Moral Compass of the Organisation During Crisis: Exploring the ethics roles of Strategic Communication practice","authors":"Abyshey Nhedzi, Cleopatra Gombarume","doi":"10.15249/15-1-275","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.15249/15-1-275","url":null,"abstract":"The ethical behavior has long been a subject of the strategic communication discipline, but in South Africa, there are scarce empirical researches of ethical practice to date. In this paper through interviews with ten South African strategic communication practitioners in diverse organisations. We examine what constitutes ethical communication and the roles of practitioners in guiding the organisation toward considering ethics during a crisis. Findings reveal ten moral compass roles which are categorized into ethical counsel and advocacy role types. Although marked with legal, leaders/clients who want practitioners to compromise on ethical counsel roles, practitioners were defining organisation's ethics role.","PeriodicalId":42425,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Business Ethics","volume":"15 1","pages":"28-48"},"PeriodicalIF":0.1,"publicationDate":"2021-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"67333694","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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