Description

In view of the latest corporate collapses globally
and the current financial crises, the purpose of
this thesis is an attempt to investigate and to
theorise how managers make decisions when faced with
an ethical dilemma.

Philosophers over the years have proposed different
moral theories without success.

Based on the literature review, research questions
were developed. The research methodology is
qualitative, based on the realism paradigm using a
case research design (Yin 1994). Face to face
interviews were conducted using critical incidents
and the findings were triangulated using a semi-
structured focus group.

The findings indicate that a person s ethical
behaviour changes when his/her self-interest is
affected. Whilst participants believed that business
and ethics can be reconciled, most agreed that they
can only be reconciled if the individual s interest
or business profit is not affected.

Based on the findings, a new model is proposed in an
attempt to theorise an individual s business ethical
behaviour and his/her ethical decision making
process.