The relevance of business ethics in defining the role of internal company stakeholders

English: Over the past 22 years, corporate governance internationally has revealed the following core ethical principles, namely transparency, fairness, accountability and responsibility. King lll, the latest code in South Africa, emphasises the importance of these factors and ethical leadership within a company. The root of ethical behaviour within the company lies in the notion that the company must please society instead of just being a moneymaking machine. Companies should focus more on the triple bottom line approach, namely profit, social and environmental issues. The ethicality of behaviour lies in the balance struck by a person or an organisation between these three bottom lines. A good balance of these bottom lines will result in behaviour being deemed as ethical. The company should draft a code of conduct to aid employees, as the internal stakeholders, in the promotion and maintenance of ethical behaviour. This code of conduct is the “ethical constitution” of a company. Directors have the main obligation to maintain ethical behaviour. King lll refers to directors as being the “ethical leaders” of a company. They must act ethically in all their relations with stakeholders, put the company and stakeholder needs before their own and establish the company as a socially responsible corporate citizen. Companies must comply with the notions of Corporate Social Responsibility and Corporate Social Investment in order to maintain its reputability in society. It must benefit the community as a whole and be a philanthropic being, by granting sponsorships, making donations and investing in society. The importance of ethics in the business world is two-fold: firstly, it has a positive motivation to earn the respect of the society within which the company operates and, secondly, it has a negative motivation in that ethical behaviour will combat fraud and other economic crimes with which our country is associated. It is recommended in this study that all employees should be informed of the role they play in ethics maintenance and management. It is also recommended that a separate ethics committee be established apart from the social and ethics committee to assist the company in more complex ethical issues, such as drafting codes of conduct and steering employees in the right direction.