Towards the new company : proactive corporate ethics in a globalised business environment

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT:The corporation is fast becoming, or may already have become, the prevalentstructure in human society. As such, its successes and failures impact heavily onsociety as a whole.This study will endeavour to examine past shortfalls in corporate thinking andpractice, explaining much of this by referring to lag between societal and corporatechange in their respective responses to globalisation. It is furthermore argued that thischange is still far from complete( d), if indeed it ever will be complete( d) with a fixedend. This global change, has to a large extent, caught corporations off guard, withtheir old management styles no longer providing results - with civil resistance tocorporate activity resulting in some instances.The central aim of this study is to not only understand this situation, but also toexplore potential remedies. In so doing two unique ideal states, namely the old and thenew company, will be developed. With the old company representing corporatestructure and thinking that no longer functions effectively. The new company, on theother hand, is not a present state but a future one. Thus it is the destination of thesocietal and corporate changes examined within this thesis. Consequently, the mainsubject examined will be a move away from the old company.Finally, it will be shown that dealing with problems within the corporate context nolonger requires the heavy hand of yesteryear. Instead, a proactive approach should beadopted, both for financial and ethical reasons.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University