This study reports on a decade$$s trends $(2007$ to $2019)$ of South African managers$$ ethical predispositions about business

decisions. The literature basis of the study deals with defining business ethics in South Africa from the recent past, up to

$2019$ with the contentious issue of using student groups as populations$$ and then also particularly ascertained the suitability

of experienced part$-$time managers in training $($or retraining$)$ as a population for business studies. Here, sufficient evidence cleared

the population for a focused study such as this. The empirical study analysis data were collected annually over the $13-$year

period from managers who enrolled at a South African business school. These managers aimed to further improve their managerial

qualifications by studying towards an MBA degree, or entered into executive education programmes on the South African

National Qualification Forum at level $6$ or higher$$ typically, students attending the Advanced Management Programme

qualify. A total of $1929$ managers formed part of this longitudinal study.

The questionnaire postulated $14$ questionable company business decisions, and the respondents had to evaluate each

decision along ethical lines. Their ethical predispositions towards the questionable business decisions were recorded on a balanced

$6-$point scale, where $3,5$ served as the neutral predisposition. A Cronbach alpha coefficient of $0,895$ ensured high reliability and

internal consistency which shows that the data could be analysed confidently. The American questionnaire designed by

Fullerton in $1993$ was used because this questionnaire has been internationally validated on six continents and in $12$ countries

while it was also independently revalidated for use in South Africa in $2010$ and $2019$ to collect business ethics data. The data

were captured and analysed by the Statistical Consultation Services at the North$-$West University. The trend analysis shows

that, in general, a total of nine business scenarios displayed unacceptable ethical attitudes by the managers in $2007,$ while

five business scenarios displayed acceptable ethical attitudes. Two scenarios were marginal and the managers could not

make up their minds whether they were acceptable or unacceptable. $($This is still true for these twoscenarios in $2019.)$

Regarding analysis of the individual scenarios, four different classifications were applied. These are: $(1)$ unacceptable in

$2007,$ but acceptable in $2019(2)$ acceptable in $2007,$ and remaining so in $2019(3)$ unacceptable in $2007$ and remaining

unacceptable in $2019$ and $(4)$ acceptable in $2007,$ but unacceptable in $2019.$ A total of six scenarios were characterised as

belonging to the first category. All of these scenarios improved. Trendwise they are similar and show an improvement of

ethical attitudes among managers with regard to their ethical business decision$-$making. Regarding the second category, only

one scenario indicated acceptable ethical attitudes by managers back in $2007,$ which remained so$.$ They deal with $$dodging

tax by using creative accounting$.$ This scenario shows that managers deem this behaviour to be acceptable$$ however, they

seem to find this much more acceptable in $2019$ than they did in $2007!$

This means the attitudes of the managers at present towards this scenario are pointing towards acceptance of such actions,

and consequently more towards unethical business practices. Although only one scenario applies, it is still categorised as

an unethical practice and this is cumbersome. The third category presents unacceptable ethical attitudes in $2007,$ which

remained unacceptable in $2019.$ Two scenarios fall into this category, namely $$false reference pricing$$ and $$advertising out$-$ of$-$stock

products cheaply to draw customers into the shop$.$ The final category is cumbersome as it presents scenarios that were

acceptable in $2007,$ which are now deemed to be unacceptable. This shows that there is a deterioration in ethical business

attitudes.

A total of five scenarios turned to the dark side in the past $13$ years. Here, the results show that the practice of $$withholding

to launch new products in the market until the inventory of the old model is cleared$,$advertising to children$,$moving a

factory to a low$-$cost country to save on production cost$,$using selective distribution to protect large retailers$$ and $$using

sports stars to endorse products$$ are all now deemed to be acceptable. Interestingly, the results also show that the $2007$

managers are an inverse mirror image of the $2019$ managers with regard to their attitudes towards ethical. QUESTION $1[20$ MARKS$]$ With reference to the extract, discuss how macro ethics can impact on organisational ethics and how organisational ethics can also impact personal ethics $1\mathrm{.}1$ Discussion of macro ethics and how it impacts organisational ethics from the case study $1\mathrm{.}2$ Discussion of organisational ethics and how it impacts on personal ethics based on the case study