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The role of reflexivity on the interpretation and application of the governance of ethics in a selected academic faculty located in the western cape, south africa: preliminary overview and progress

Governance and ethics within corporate and public sector institutions in South Africa is receiving increased attention and has become contemporary within the realm of academic discourse and research due to the prevailing unethical behaviour and non-compliance with governance principles within these institutions. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are not excluded from this phenomenon and serve as the locus for this paper. The existence of a perceived gap between the principles contained in the governance of ethics, in terms of the regulatory frameworks and their practical interpretation and application thereof, will be explored. The approach adopted is to identify the reasons for this dilemma which will be undertaken through the examination of the variability of the participants’ actions, who are socially similar, and the differences in the processes of reflexitivity as propagated in the writings by the social realist, Archer (1995:1996). The formulated research study question is: How did the participants act when confronted with this dilemma? The focus will be on the relationship between the cultural properties which make up the social domain which will either constrain or enable the participants to act. An academic faculty has been selected which will serve as the unit of analysis and serve as a single case study. A preliminary overview and progress of the project will be presented.