Institutionalising ethics in organisations.

The phenomenon exists that organisations do not do much to ensure the institutionalisation of business ethics in general, and more specifically, the ethical behaviour of their employees. The possibility that mentoring may act as a vehicle to institutionalise corporate ethical practices was proposed as a possible solution to the aforementioned problem. This possibility was formulated in the form of a research question. A literature study on mentoring and ethics was applied as theoretical foundation to this research. The aim of this part of the study was to answe r the first six research sub-questions related to mentoring and ethics. A qualitative study followed to answer the remaining sub-questions , namely whether organisations do make use of mentoring as a tool to institutionalise ethical behaviour; to establish how organisations make use of mentoring to institutionalise ethical behaviour; and whether mentoring is a suitable vehicle to institutionalise corporate ethical practices. From this study, it became evident that organisations do implement mentoring to a certain extent, but do not formally use mentoring as a tool to convey ethical messages. This study revealed that mentors transfer ethical messages on an informal basis, although the organisation does not expect them to do so. Further, no previous research could be found on the role of mentoring in the institutionalisation of business ethics. All participants of this study agreed that mentoring would be suitable as vehicle to institutionalise corporate ethical principles. This process needs to be formalised and integrated. An integrated model of mentoring in the institutionalisation of business ethics was generated which highlights the compatibility of these two processes. This model could be a handy tool firstly for designers of mentoring programmes, secondly for organisations implementing mentoring programmes and finally for tertiary institutions that train managers.Prof. LJ Van Vuure