ATTITUDES TOWARDS BUSINESS ETHICS HELD BY SOUTH-AFRICAN STUDENTS

This study uses the ATBEQ, as published by J.F. Preble and A. Reichel (1988) to measure attitudes towards ethical business attitudes held by final year South African Bachelor of Commerce students at Rhodes Univ ersity. Three samples of students were assessed over three consecutive years of 1989, 1990 and 1991, and results are compared with samples ( 1988) of American and Israeli students and a sample (1991) of Western Australian students. A significant difference in attitudes was found t o exist between the Israeli and South African samples. A factor analys is of the questionnaire identified eleven factors of which seven are t heoretically labelled. A revised version of the ATBEQ is suggested whi ch excludes the poorly performing questions.