SAICA UNDERGRADUATE ETHICS EDUCATION PROJECT
Introduction
What follows offers a flexibly-structured example of a semester-long course on
Business and Professional Ethics aimed particularly at students studying for careers in
accountancy, but also for business studies generally.
The material can be delivered as Universities judge best: as a single semester course,
as two half-semester courses, or as a series of sections integrated into existing courses
such as Business Management, or in some combination of delivery strategies, so long
as the content required by SAICA is retained.
Used as a single, semester course, it is intended for the second year of pre-graduate
studies but it can also be offered as two half-semester courses to be taken in the
second and third year of study or possibly in the fourth year. The design of the course
is such that it provides not just a foundation of general and specific ethical knowledge
but also a background to the study of the professional code of conduct of the SA
Institute of Chartered Accountants, which is taken by accountancy students in the
fourth year of tertiary studies. This is done by studying selected, shorter business and
professional codes.
The course emphasises applied rather than theoretical ethics, containing just as much
theory as is necessary for an understanding of moral principles. To this end of
emphasising the practical side of ethics, frequent use is made of real-life case material
from the business and professional worlds. Lecturers can vary this material with other
cases of their own choosing, and can make even more use of case studies if they wish.
A particularly novel feature of the course is that it is tailored to the realities of a
culturally diverse national and global context. It does this by including a short
introduction to comparative and diversity ethics, intended to equip students for
meaningful relationships with people from cultural backgrounds that differ from their
own.
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Option A:
Semester course (12 weeks with 4 lectures per week of 45 minutes
each, taken in the second year of study)
Ethics, Business and Accountancy
Assessment: Coursework assignments (e.g. 40%) plus a final 3 hour examination
(e.g. 60%).
(The assignments can take the form of a number of class tests, mini-assignments
about as long as an examination answer and/or a learning journal in which students
report on their learning experiences as they progress through the course, linking
course content with ethically relevant events and issues encountered in other subjects,
from the news media and from personal experiences. An example of the instruction
sheet for a learning journal is attached.)
Examples of possible exam questions are also attached.
Section 1: Introduction to Applied Ethics (4 weeks)
(Numbers in brackets = suggested number of lectures)
Outcomes:
1. A sound introductory understanding of the ethical dimension of individual and
social life in the context of cultural diversity.
2. Basic grasp of selected ethical theories and their relevance to business and
professional ethical issues.
3. Ability to link case material with ethical knowledge and theory.
4. Ability to use ethical decision-making strategies,. e.g. in relation to case studies.
NB. Sub-sections 2.2 and 2.3 can be taught in reverse order.
1. Ethics case material from business and the profession (2)
2. General ethics: 2.1 Introduction: the nature of ethics and applied ethics (2)
2.2 Selected value-systems: e.g. African, Judeo-Christian,
Islamic, Hindu, Chinese, Secular Humanist, Feminist, and ther
question of moral relativism. (6).
2.3 Philosophical approaches to ethics: Kantian, Utilitarianism,
Virtue ethics. (4)
3. Ethical decision-making: examples of methods and application to personal
situations and to case studies. (2)
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Section 2: Business Ethics (4 weeks)
Outcomes:
1. An introductory understanding of selected, large-scale, socio-economic ethical
issues relevant to business and professional practice.
2. An introductory understanding of selected issues and approaches in business
ethics in South Africa and internationally.
3. Knowledge and basic skills relating to the nature of organizations and
management in ethical perspective.
4. Ability to link the above competencies and knowledge with case studies.
4. Macro-ethics: issues such as: profit, competition, the environment and wealth and
poverty. (4)
5. Contemporary approaches to business ethics such as stakeholder theory,
corporate social responsibility, corporate governance and the King Report,
corporate social responsibility, and international developments.(4)
6. Management and organizational ethics (4)
7. Selected international and local case studies in business ethics: e.g. Enron, Shell,
Pick ‘n Pay, Masterbond. (4)
Section 3: Ethics and Accountancy (4 weeks)
Outcomes:
1. Knowledge of the nature of professionalism in general and of its ethical aspects.
2. Understanding of the purpose, structures and contents of selected codes of ethics
from business and the professions.
3. Basic knowledge of main ethical issues and aspects of the accountancy profession.
4. Ability to analyse case studies from the accountancy profession in relation to
decision-making, comparative and diversity ethics (where appropriate) and ethical
theories, and to propose solutions to the ethical issues they involve.
8. Professionalism, careers and ethics. (2)
9. The nature, typical structure and value of business and professional codes, with
select examples. (2)
10. Introduction to accountancy ethics. (6)
11. Case studies in accountancy ethics and the application of ethical decision-making
skills and methods to them (6)
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Option B
Two half-semester modules of around 6 weeks each, one in the
second year and one in the third year. (Fourth year will still have the
detailed study of the SAICA code.)
1. Ethics and Business
Section 1: Introduction to Applied Ethics (3 weeks)
(Numbers in brackets = suggested number of lectures)
Outcomes:
1. A sound introductory understanding of the ethical dimension of individual and
social life in the context of cultural diversity.
2. Basic grasp of selected ethical theories and their relevance to business and
professional ethical issues.
3. Ability to link case material with ethical knowledge and theory.
4. Ability to use ethical decision-making strategies,. e.g. in relation to case studies.
1. Ethics case material from business and the profession (2)
2. General ethics:
2.1 Introduction: the nature of ethics and applied ethics (2)
2.2 Selected value-systems: e.g. African, Judeo-Christian,
Islamic, Hindu, Chinese, Secular Humanist, Feminist, and
ther question of moral relativism. (3).
2.3 Philosophical approaches to ethics: Kantian, Utilitarianism,
Virtue ethics. (3)
3. Ethical decision-making: examples of methods and application to personal
situations and to case studies. (2)
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Section 2: Business Ethics (3 weeks)
Outcomes:
1. An introductory understanding of selected, large-scale, socio-economic ethical
issues relevant to business and professional practice.
2. An introductory understanding of selected issues and approaches in business ethics
in South Africa and internationally.
3. Knowledge and basic skills relating to the nature of organizations and management
in ethical perspective.
4. Ability to link the above competencies and knowledge with case studies.
4. Macro-ethics: issues such as profit, competition, the environment, wealth and
poverty. (4)
5. Contemporary approaches to business ethics such as stakeholder theory,
corporate social responsibility, corporate governance, the King Report,
corporate social responsibility, and international developments.(4)
6. International and local case studies: e.g. Enron, Shell, Pick ‘n Pay,
Masterbond. (4)
2. Ethics and Accountancy
Outcomes:
1. Knowledge of the nature of professionalism in general and of its ethical aspects.
2. Understanding of the purpose, structures and contents of selected codes of ethics
from business and the professions.
3. Basic knowledge of main ethical issues and aspects of the accountancy profession.
4. Ability to analyse case studies from the accountancy profession in relation to
decision-making, comparative and diversity ethics (where appropriate) and ethical
theories, and to propose solutions to the ethical issues they involve.
Section 1: Ethics, Management and Professionalism (3 weeks)
1. Organizational ethics (4)
2. Management ethics (4)
3. General professional ethics (4)
Section 2: Accountancy and ethics (3 weeks)
4. Introduction to accountancy ethics (4)
5. The nature, typical structure and value of business and professional codes,
with select examples. (2)
6. Case studies in accountancy ethics and the application of ethical decisionmaking skills and methods to them (6)
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Attachment: Learning Journal Assignment
This course requires that you present in (date) a course learning journal in which you
record, explore, interpret, comment on and evaluate your learning experience in
connection with the contact sessions and outside them. Here now are the guidelines
for the assignments:
1. The first step is to understand the purpose of this exercise, viz to link what you
learn firstly in the contact sessions with, secondly, your readings and thirdly with
relevant, practical experiences after the contact sessions, in other, relevant studies and
in society at large.
2. For some reading recommendations see below. Your readings must at least include
Rossouw and at least one other substantial text. Depth and quality of reading count
more than quantity.
3. To do this, it is best to make regular and detailed notes after the contact sessions
and regularly thereafter about readings and relevant experiences.
4. Next, be especially alert to anything in your wider experience (work, society etc)
which strikes you as being relevant to, or which links up with, what you learn in the
contact sessions. Make clear notes of these, with dates and source details where
appropriate.
5. See yourself as your own creative educator - by doing more than just noting the
issues covered in the classes and in your wider experience. Try to probe them,
interrogate them, seek insight, make imaginative connections, be alert to problems
and above all to possible solutions - and keep notes of these episodes of creative
thinking.
6. Start shaping your growing body of notes into a well-written and very well
presented learning journal. Feel free to find creative ways of presenting your material,
so long as these do not give the reader headaches. Add full bibliographical details and
other appropriate source reference for material written by somebody else, or derived
from such material.
7. Please do not exceed 3000 words or drop below 2500.
8. Feel free to contact the module co-ordinator about anything in this process.
Contact details are given below.
Recommended core readings
Rossouw, Deon: Business Ethics in Africa (2002: Oxford University Press, Cape
Town.)
Singer, Peter: Practical Ethics. (2nd ed, 1995: Cambridge )
Teichmann, Jenny: Social Ethics: A Student=s Companion.
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