Building Synergies Between Ethical And Business Values For Better Institutional Performance In Africa
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Date
2011Author
MAWEU, JACINTA MWENDE
Type
OtherLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Businesses and corporate organizations globally are struggling to stay afloat amidst the
biting effects of the economic crisis. The global economic crisis, increasing competition
and the increasing cases of corporate and business scandals have re-awakened the need
for value guided strategic thinking in both the public and corporate world. Building
synergies is one of the most common ways in which corporate, business and even public
institutions are strategically positioning themselves either to beat competition or to
remain economically viable in the market. This conceptual paper explores the economic
cost of ethical failures in business and corporate organizations in order to make a case for
the importance of building synergies between ethical and business values to guide
organizational behaviour and to increase organizational performance. The paper explains
why ‘ethical business is good business’ and why ethical values and business values are
not mutually exclusive. Using the market model and public interest model, the paper
shows why it is in the best interest of any organization to have internal and external
ethical controls to ensure the successful building of synergies at the organizational and
inter organizational level. The paper therefore proposes an ‘enlightened self-interest
approach’ as a measure to synergize business and ethical values for optimal performance.
The main argument that the paper presents is that most organizational failures in most
African countries are not as a result of poor business/organizational models or a
misjudgment of the market, but rather due to some serious ethical failures.
Publisher
Department of Philosophy, University of Nairobi
Description
Building Synergies Between Ethical And Business Values For Better Institutional Performance In Africa