The ethical awareness of the leadership of South African business schools: Do they set the tone?

This paper explores the ethical awareness of the leadership of South African business schools. A questionnaire was distributed electronically to the top leadership of these business schools. The biographical characteristics of respondents were analysed to develop an ethical awareness score for each respondent. This score was used to determine whether respondents’ ethical awareness was above average and whether ethical awareness was affected by level of qualification or teaching experience. The results indicate that the leadership of South African business schools seem not to be sufficiently ethically aware to ensure that their business schools contribute to improved business ethics education and ethical business practices.