Induction as a tool to institutionalise organisational ethics.

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 Vuure