3. Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs) - All submissions

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    The role that journalists in South Africa play in reporting on the asset management industry
    (2019) Jones, Gillian
    The way that financial journalists in South Africa do their jobs has not been well researched and consequently is not well understood. The intention of this report is to develop preliminary insights into the conditions that shape financial news in South Africa, and thus to contribute to the existing research on financial journalism in the country. The study explores the role played by financial journalists in South Africa in reporting on the asset management industry, which is crucial to the economy through its control of vast sums of money representing the savings of citizens, investments in business and funding of government. In view of this and the potentially increasing risk in the asset management industry, the way in which the media covers the sector is important. Focusing attention on how the media report on the asset management industry provides insights that may extend to the financial media in general. The report draws on the liberal-pluralism argument that media functions as a watchdog in society to ensure that no single body should hold too much power. The constraints to the media’s ability to play a watchdog role as argued by political economists were considered. In addition, the study applies relevant aspects of the organisational approaches to media production, in order to understand some of the factors that influence the ability of financial journalists in South Africa to play a watchdog role. In particular, the study considers the relationship between journalists and sources within the asset management industry to determine who is setting the agenda in news coverage of the investment sector. This may indicate whether or not financial media are fulfilling the watchdog role. The research method involved in-depth qualitative interviews with financial journalists to explore the environment in which financial news is produced. A content analysis, quantitative and qualitative, of Business Day, Financial Mail, Finweek and Sunday Times Business Times, was employed to further explore the subject. As this is a complex topic, this study introduces the key issues and highlights some areas where future research could assist in improving our understanding. A key finding of the study is that financial journalists in South Africa are not acting as effective watchdogs over the asset management industry. This may be due to a combination of a lack of resources and not having the mindset of a watchdog built into the financial media’s approach to daily news production. In addition, the balance of power in setting the agenda on media coverage of the asset management industry lies predominantly with the corporations.
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    Trainee accountants' perceptions of the usefulness of the business ethics curriculum: a case of SAICA
    (2019) Maseko, Kwena Nicholas
    The main research objective of this study was to determine whether Chartered Accountancy (CA) trainees consider business ethics education they received to be useful, and to investigate if it was given the necessary attention at SAICA-accredited universities. The data obtained from CA trainees using a survey was analysed using four theoretical constructs, namely: a) Adequacy of coverage of ethics education, b) Importance of ethics, c) Impact of ethics education on ethical awareness and, d) Effectiveness of ethics education. Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests of normality were applied to the theoretical constructs to determine if the data was normally distributed. The Mann-Whitney U test was used to determine if there were significant differences when opinions were categorized according to gender, study mode (part-time or full-time) and highest academic qualification. The Cronbach alpha coefficient was computed to test the reliability of participants’ responses to the survey. The study has found strong agreement among CA trainees that business ethics education is receiving adequate attention at SAICA-accredited universities and is useful in both their professional and personal lives
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    The dichotomous nature of capitalism: can the profit motive be reconciled to ethical business practice?
    (2010-11-18) Willcock, Graham J.
    Abstract This paper presents the thesis that, in certain circumstances and despite the dichotomous nature of capitalism, economic self-interest, or profit, may be reconciled to ethical business practice. These circumstances require that: i) a business enterprise be conducted outside of a traditional business model, in what will be referred to as a stakeholder model of business; ii) this stakeholder model must be grounded in a Rawlsian conception of contractualism, where all players are ‘free, equal, rational and reasonable’, with the emphasis on reasonableness; and where, iii) matters of Aristotelean character are the currency for determining reasonableness and the degree to which players are able to agree, or at least not reject, a particular course of action.
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    Bureaucracy: a moral perspective
    (2008-09-10T07:09:42Z) Koll, Sandy Gillian
    In this research report, I question the moral justification of bureaucracy. After pointing out some arguments in favour of bureaucracy and some teleological, or result-based, arguments against bureaucracy, I pay particular attention to deontological, or process-based, moral arguments against bureaucracy. The two main arguments against bureaucracy that I address are (1) that bureaucracies constitute unfair decision making procedures in democratic societies, and (2) that bureaucracies treat their participants (both clients and workers) disrespectfully. I then give some suggestions of what a promising alternative to bureaucracy might look like, based on the two main arguments against bureaucracy that I consider. Ultimately, I conclude that it is still an open question whether bureaucracy is morally justified, but that my research brings to the fore some serious moral problems with bureaucracy that are worth taking note of. Even if it turns out that the results of bureaucratic organisation are so beneficial that bureaucracy is, all things considered, justified, the moral problems that I point out in this research are worth serious consideration.
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