Abstract
Business ethics in Africa, as a field of research, practice, and teaching, has grown rapidly over the last two decades or so, covering a wide variety of topical issues, including corporate social responsibility, governance, and social entrepreneurship. Building on this progress, and to further advance the field, this special issue addresses four broad areas that cover important, under-researched or newly emerging phenomena in Africa: culture, ethics and leadership; business, society and institutions; corruption, anti-corruption and governance; and philanthropy, social entrepreneurship and impact investing. In addition to advancing research by addressing some of the imbalances and gaps in the extant literature, this special issue draws attention to indigenous African theories, models and firms. Some challenges facing business ethics, as a field of practice and teaching in Africa, are also highlighted. The paper concludes with a summary of the eight articles in this special issue.
Highlights
Business ethics in Africa — as a field of research, practice, and teaching — has grown substantially over the last two decades or so (Rossouw, 2011; Kolk and Rivera-Santos, 2018)
Is there a compelling business case for ethical leadership in African contexts? A recent empirical study in Nigeria by Babalola et al (2018) found support for the applicability and generalisability of an ethical leadership construct, and concludes that ethical leadership can be as effective in an African context as it is in Western countries
More attention needs to be paid to smaller, entrepreneurial firms and informal economy players, as they account for an increasing share of economic activities in many countries
Summary
Business ethics in Africa — as a field of research, practice, and teaching — has grown substantially over the last two decades or so (Rossouw, 2011; Kolk and Rivera-Santos, 2018). Rossouw’s (2011) survey identified about 150 modules in which business ethics was being taught in academic institutions in the region, with the four broad content areas: theoretical foundations of business ethics; macro-economic and systemic challenges; corporate responsibility; and, ethical management and leadership These advances in business ethics research, practice, and teaching in Africa should not be surprising for at least two reasons. Businesses are under increasing local and global scrutiny, with government agencies, civil society organisations, and the public applying varying degrees of pressure These factors, as well as the distinctively communal philosophy and ethics that characterise traditional African cultures, position the continent to make unique contributions to the broader business ethics and management literature. The gap between business ethics theory and practice in the classroom appears problematic in the African context, as the quote above illustrates, and raises several pertinent questions around how African ethics might differ from Western or Asian ethics, and the role of culture in cultivating ethical leadership
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