Abstract
Ethics is becoming important in organisations today as organisations strive to
create strong ethics cultures. There are different ways in which ethics can be
conveyed to employees. This dissertation was aimed at establishing whether
induction is an appropriate vehicle to convey organisational ethics to employees,
and if so, how it could ideally be utilised.
To seek an answer to the research question posed above, a literature study that
explored the themes of business ethics and induction was firstly conducted.
Thereafter, from a qualitative research paradigm, personal, in-depth interviews
were conducted with human resources managers, line managers and new
employees who attended a company’s induction programme. The responses
were coded, analysed and significant themes were extracted. It was found that
induction is indeed a useful vehicle to contribute to the institutionalisation of
organisational ethics. Induction should, however, be used in conjunction with
other interventions should the organisation aspire to creating an ethics culture
over time. Implications of the findings for managerial tertiary education were
indicated. Recommendations for further research into the topic were also
presented.
Prof. L.J. Van Vuuren