Abstract
Over the past few years South Africa has made great strides in following its
European and American counterparts, and has managed to develop highly effective
models for the regulation of the pharmaceutical industry (Laban, 2003). There has
also been media coverage in the international press about pharmaceutical
companies being fined for unethical business practices (Evans, 2009; Kelton, 2012).
In recent times the South African economy, like the rest of the world, has been under
financial pressure due to the global financial crisis and local market pressures. This
has led to a decline in many of the sectors, including the healthcare sector.
The research aims to examine the effect that business ethics and ethical principles
have as a success factor for business within the South African pharmaceutical sector.
The main purpose of the research was to determine whether ethical business
behaviour in the pharmaceutical business environment is a success factor to
sustainable business.
The research explored whether or not managers drive ethical behaviour within the
pharmaceutical companies in the pursuit of driving sales targets. The researcher
embarked on this research as he observed through his tenure as an employee in
some multi national and local pharmaceutical companies that not all decisions within
these organisations were founded on ethical principles.
The research applied qualitative exploration methodology as the investigative tool
with a purposefully selected sample of managers from within the pharmaceutical
industry and healthcare practitioners who have direct dealings with the
pharmaceutical industry The research focuses on what the driving forces are for
business ethics in the South African pharmaceutical industry and whether ethical
business behaviour in the South African pharmaceutical business environment was a
success factor to sustainable business.
The study concludes by re-iterating the researcher’s initial thoughts on the influence
of the various role players on ethical business success and provides good grounding
for further research into business practices within the South African pharmaceutical
industry as success factors. A key finding from the research suggests that ethical
leadership has an influence of the ethical course a company and its employees
embark on; and as leaders the senior management within companies can have both...
M.Com. (Business Management)