ARE WE GETTING USED TO THE HOT WATER?
Photo © 2010 J. Ronald Lee. Prof. Deon Rossouw A well-known urban myth alleges that if you put a frog in a pot of hot water, it will try to escape immediately. However, if you put the frog in a pot filled with room temperature water…
ETHICS RECOVERY – WITH A STATE CAPTURE HANGOVER
Prof. Deon Rossouw The decline of ethical standards in organisations in South Africa has been thoroughly lamented over the past decade. The lamentations raised to a crescendo as revelations about corrupt practices were revealed before the…
Organisational Ethics During the Covid-19 Pandemic
In times of crisis, Organizational Ethics becomes even more important because the problems organisations face become more complex and difficult to solve, and the decisions they must take become more urgent and riskier. COVID-19 has taken…
Restoring Trust in SOEs Through the Objective Selection of Board Members
Lulama Qabaka & Leon van Vuuren The Ethics Institute – October 2021  A story going around relates to a boy who, upon his return from school, is asked by his mother how his day went. The boy indicated that every child in his class was…
Affirmative Action: Flawed or Failed?
Nicole Konstantinopoulos Lulama Qabaka Transformation was sold on a dream of upliftment, more jobs, a better economy, and socioeconomic equality. Yet, our current standings would suggest that this dream has morphed into something of a…
Whistleblower protection – are we huffing and puffing in the right direction?
Lead Article, Liezl Groenewald 25 September 2021 The murder of Babita Deokaran in August 2021 has sparked much public debate about the protection of whistleblowers. And rightfully so. By now the nation is aware of the many consequences…
Whistleblowing information at your fingertips…at last. Introducing the Whistleblowing Without Fear app.
Article by Werner Bouwer, in collaboration with Brendan Grealy and Michelle Perrow When I presented my first awareness training session 15 years ago to a listed company’s staff, and the employees started explaining why they didn’t feel…
Are some organisations cults?
Thought piece by Annie Ou Yang No matter where you go in life, there are always rules for behaviour, written or unwritten, that need to be followed. In many ways, we are like schoolchildren waiting for school to end to be freed from all…
To nudge or not to nudge?
Lead article by Dr Paul Vorster Have you ever wondered how many of your decisions are really your own? It is scary to consider the age-old question of whether we as humans have agency in our world or what we would call ‘free will’. In…
More than ever before, South Africa needs moral heroes
Thought piece - Dr Paul Vorster Mass lootings, violence, political destabilization, and anarchy. You would be forgiven for believing that this must be some other war-torn country we all read about or see in the news. But you would be…
Local government: Flawed people or flawed system?
Lead article – Kris Dobie Good ethical leadership in local government is a rarity – and I have a premise about why this is the case. As of recently, this premise is also grounded in research, which should give it some more credence. The…
Applauding whistleblowers isn’t enough
By: Prof Deon Rossouw Whistleblowers played a key role in exposing fraud and corruption in both private and public sector organisations involved in state capture. Without the vital information disclosed by whistleblowers the exposure of…