Abstract
Ethical conduct within consulting has become increasingly important since management consulting has developed into an independent profession. The objective of this research was to determine if differences exist in client consultant relationship ethics within a defined group of management consultancies in South Africa. A questionnaire was developed to assess ethical behaviour across five dimensions, namely the client consultant relationship, financial and contractual concerns, delivery of expectations, orientation and competence of consultants, and ethics in consultant behaviour. Thirty-nine respondents completed the questionnaire. Significant differences on ethical dimensions in relation to job level, between consulting firms, the level of senior management commitment to ethics and the existence of a code of ethics were obtained.