Walking South Africa’s Business Ethics Talk: How Higher Education and Commercial Enterprises Can Co-create a Thriving Cohesive Society

Abstract

This chapter contains a critical interview with Prof. Alex Antonites, the Head of the Department (HoD) of Business Management at the University of Pretoria (UP). Prof. Antonites has been instrumental in introducing values-based ethical pedagogy to higher business education at UP’s Department of Business Management. Under Prof. Antonites’s leadership, the department has introduced business ethics content in first-year management modules and the department has pioneered one of the first fully fledged second- and third-year Responsible Leadership and Business Ethics-oriented curriculum for undergraduate students on the African continent. The department’s Albert Luthuli Leadership Institute (ALLI) has also been instrumental in advancing ethical organisational development on the African continent through their postgraduate Responsible Leadership offering at the master’s and doctoral level. In this iconic interview, Prof. Alex Antonites discusses what it will take to blaze a trail to Mzansi’s (South Africa’s nickname) prosperity with Jameo Calvert, a student of both business and education at UP. In this engaging conversation with Jameo, Prof. Antonites articulates how South African enterprises and higher education institutions can make a positive difference in the post-Covid-19 era in realising the country’s developmental aspirations by walking their business ethics talk.

Citation

Antonites, A. and Calvert, J. (2022), "Walking South Africa’s Business Ethics Talk: How Higher Education and Commercial Enterprises Can Co-create a Thriving Cohesive Society", Thakhathi, A. (Ed.) Transcendent Development: The Ethics of Universal Dignity (Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations, Vol. 25), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 137-143. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1529-209620220000025010