Ethics and corporate governance: a model for South African public service

Abstract

The history of a country can be marked by its lack of the capacity of good governance and generally it can be viewed as backwards. The backwardness and lack of good governance can be perpetuated by lack of ethical conduct and corporate governance. These are some of the tenets and requirements for globalisation in Africa. Most of the African states had to be reorganised to fit local context of cultural, political and economic process in the quest for globalisation. Because globalisation is widely used to describe a variety of economic, cultural, social and political landscapes, it is contested how African states are able to match the good standards of governance and South Africa is not an exception. Good governance should be based on oversight bodies established with the primary objective of monitoring as well as ensuring ethical conduct for sound decision making. The organisational culture, the organisational climate, organisational goals as well as stakeholders play a vital role in influencing decision making process. These, in turn, impact on the country’s productivity and service delivery and impacting on its standing in the global village. Despite all efforts, the administration and management of government is infiltrated by corruption consequently with the decline in economic growth and development. These can impact on social and economic factors for corporate governance and adherence to global standards. The deontological or rule-based beliefs and values that are based on the expected outcomes or the teleogical beliefs can contribute to the ethical conduct for corporate governance? The paper looked at, through the primary and secondary data, on how can organisational culture, the external and internal environment, organisational values, organisational culture, the organisational climate, organisational goals, ethical climates, management control, individual values and stakeholders play. A Model for South African context is developed to address ethical conduct and suggest good corporate governance for the South African public service.