Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION.. 3

2. BACKGROUND.. 3

3. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM... 4

4. AIM OF THE STUDY.. 4

5. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES. 4

6. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH.. 5

7. LITERATURE REVIEW... 5

Leading perspectives for researching operations. 6

8. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY.. 6

8.2 Research Philosophy. 7

8.3 Sampling Strategy. 8

Target Population. 8

Sampling. 9

8.4 Data Collection. 10

9. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS. 10

10. PROPOSED TIMETABLE.. 11

9. Appendices. 11

Appendix A: Interview Schedule. 11

Section 2: interview questions. 12

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

1. INTRODUCTION Of An investigation into the factors affecting ethical procedures within SCM

Of An investigation into the factors affecting ethical procedures within SCM, which starts from the manufacturing/production of the product, then delivering the established products to targeted customers. According to Ambe (2016:20) supply chain management “involves planning, managing the activities in sourcing, procurement, conversion, with also logistics. There is coordination, collaboration with suppliers, intermediaries and customers”. The supply chain has become vital to organizational success that companies now compete as supply chains rather than as individual entities.In business, the use of recognized social principles is involving justice and fairness in business relationships. Therefore the ethical conduct of the supply chains has also begun to be scrutinized, both from an internal business performance perspective and from the increasing concerns held by the numerous stakeholders of the organization.

This research will investigate and explore the notion of ethics as it applies to supply chain management (Boström, Jönsson, Lockie, Mol, & Oosterveer, 2015). It will also examine supply chain ethical practices and demonstrates that there is an empirical relationship between ethical practices and performance. The results will show that ethical practices have positive impacts on the performance of the supply chain management (Yusuf, Hawkins, Musa, & El-Berishy, 2014)

2. BACKGROUND Of An investigation into the factors affecting ethical procedures within SCM

Currently business dynamics are changing rapidly, with the passage of time, and technology is playing its part in the digitalization of the business. The increasing role of technology is making an impact on supply chain management as supply chain is relying heavily on various technologiess (Genovese, Acquaye, Figueroa, & Koh, 2017). When business operations are managed at the supply chain level, the business organizations should ensure that things are done ethically, keeping the interest of customers in view, who are ultimately going to use their products. The question in terms of supply chain management is, whether managers and organizations are ready to adopt value ethics? This concept is very relevant to corporate social responsibility. There are various elements associated with an ethical supply chain management. One important element is using methods to produce products that are sustainable and environment-friendly. Discrimination at the workplace along with violating the rules related to minimum wages is also part of the ethical supply chain (Ivanov, Tsipoulanidis, & Schönberger, 2017). Thus, when an organization integrates an ethical supply chain in its business, it actually contributes to the essence of corporate social responsibility (Busse, Meinlschmidt, & Foerstl, 2017). However, organizations still lack in employing the elements of the ethical supply chain, as there are various factors effecting them (Stadtler, 2015). In this paper, the focus will be given to those factors, which are effecting the ethical procedures within Supply Chain Management.

3. THE RESEARCH PROBLEM Of An investigation into the factors affecting ethical procedures within SCM

Organizations understand that ethical procedures are important for their supply chain management, and it can also offer various long term benefits. But still, organizations are not able to adopt ethical procedures, due to various factors, which need to be investigated and understood to address these factors. Most businesses are collapsing due to lack of business ethics, most dishonest people in the purchasing functions are positioned and they are being able to enrich them personally or to gain other personal favours for awarding a contract or order to certain suppliers. Such irrational decision sometimes makes purchasing enterprises suffer (Johnson & Flynn, 2015). Ethical supply chain management needs to be followed by companies’ to avoid reputational damage, other business interruption and the supplier contracts and codes of conduct. The organizations need to understand why different factors are preventing them from implementing ethical procedures within their supply chain management. Thus, the purpose of this research is to investigate and explore the areas of unethical conduct by purchasers, suppliers, employees  and possible ways in minimizing unethical behaviour among purchasers, employees, and other stakeholder.

4. AIM OF THE STUDY Of An investigation into the factors affecting ethical procedures within SCM

This study aims to investigate the factors affecting ethical procedures within Supply Chain Management.  By investigating and understanding the factors ethical procedures within Supply Chain Management, the study will be able to propose and provide recommendations to address these factors allowing for ethical procedures to be conducted.  

5. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES Of An investigation into the factors affecting ethical procedures within SCM

·         To investigate and gain an understanding of the factors affecting ethical procedures within supply chain management

·         To identify the factors, effecting organizations from following ethical within Supply Chain Management

·         To determine the role of business organizations, as well as, leaders in negating or accepting the importance of ethical procedures in supply chain management.

6. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH Of An investigation into the factors affecting ethical procedures within SCM

This research is associated with the academic field, it is intended to make recommendations, it can be used as a referral point and stimulate the discussion around the field of supply chain management. It will also create awareness to active participants and future students in this field. The research will demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of supply chain management and how to relate it to the daily life of people.

The significance of the research is not only to identify the factors affecting the ethical procedures associated with supply chain management, but it will also help to open more future research areas for other researchers to further investigate. The research is also going to prove imperative and significant for the organizations, in terms of understanding the importance of ethical supply chain management, looking at factors, which are hindering them to adopt this practice. The research will identify gaps for further areas of research with relevant aspects to continue on this topic, and come up with more concrete evidence to support why ethical supply chain management is better for organizations.

7. LITERATURE REVIEW Of An investigation into the factors affecting ethical procedures within SCM  

This section will consist of the 3 parts:  supply chain and the role of ethics, supply chain ethical practices and the resulted performance from ethical practices in the supply chain management of the business organizations.

Issues in Supply chain Of An investigation into the factors affecting ethical procedures within SCM

According to Dougal and Matias (2017) some of the issues which is related with the supply chain management within the organization. Some of the authors have Asgari and Nair and Tsochas  been presenting a structure for supply chain management as well as they also providing the structure for the issues which has been faced and how these ways can be apply on the researches which will be held on future. The structure has been developed on the eight cross functions as well as cross firms which will further lead toward the process of the business which will lead toward the usage of latest ways to manage the connection between customers and suppliers. Despite the above statement, it has been based on the (Lambert, 2017) research which has been held by speculative researches which has been working with the group of managers which were derived from the non-competing organization.

Supply chain Management review Of An investigation into the factors affecting ethical procedures within SCM

Asgari (2016) , suggest that “some of the companies need to get the appropriate framework to handle and progress the supply chains as we all know that these things have been getting difficult globally”. In this article, it was also presented that “there is a need to learn how to find the solution for their problems which they have been facing in their firms, as well as to resolve such problems not to further faced in the future. Despite the form, this previous researches and surveys were trying to describe some of the perspectives which is related with the supply chain management. (Asgari, 2016).

Leading perspectives for researching operations Of An investigation into the factors affecting ethical procedures within SCM

 According to Nair and Tsochas (2019),  in this study a model has been presented which has been based on the conceptual consideration of complex adaptive systems along with the aspect of various operations of the supply chain management, some of the perspectives have been obtained to publish various issues related to supply chain management such as adaptation, emergent behaviour, and difficulty. In the study by Author it is also presented the previous conceptual structure which gives the directions for accepting the key factors which have been obtained from CAS to achieve the profound awareness into relevant problems which have been laid within this field. In this article, we will also discuss and highlight some special and significant parts of the issues and how these articles in connection with these suggested conceptual structures in the paper. In this article, some planned which is related to the various methodologies which will help in undertaking some significant approaches which are related to the managerial and theory; a cross-functional method.

8. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY

Define research methodology  Of An investigation into the factors affecting ethical procedures within SCM

The section on methodology will outline the overall research methodology. This research study will use a qualitative research method by conducting interviews.

Define Qualitative research   Of An investigation into the factors affecting ethical procedures within SCM

Qualitative research is also recognized as secondary research techniques. Just as they name implies, they focus primarily on theories and concepts instead of numbers. Meanwhile, qualitative research methods are concerned with relying on the previous or existing research to accomplish the research objectives

Define Quantitative research Of An investigation into the factors affecting ethical procedures within SCM

Quantitative researches are also recognized as primary techniques of research. And just as their name implies, they are concerned primarily with data and numbers. They are different from the secondary methods because they involve al the methods which require the researchers to conduct the research themselves instead of rely on other methods or other researches to form their own study

Which one will be used?

In this research, there is a focus on organizational success and there is analyses that how supply chain management impacts the performance of the company. However, in the present study, there is an analysis of the ethics related to supply chain management. Based on the investigation, in this research there will be the use of the explanatory qualitative research design as the topic is not researched before and the research will follow the explanatory research design because it is the most appropriate research design for the nature of the present study (Muijs, 2010).

8.2 Research Philosophy

Research philosophy Of An investigation into the factors affecting ethical procedures within SCM

A research philosophy is a belief about the way in which data about a phenomenon should be gathered, analyzed and used.

Positivism Paradigm Of An investigation into the factors affecting ethical procedures within SCM                                                                 

Researchers, in positivism, tend to identify different social factors which are capable of affecting the attitudes and behaviors of people. It can be said such researchers normally find relationships and correlations between different types of variables. It is important to note that such approach is only considered where primary research methods are considered for finding information. But since primary methods have not been utilized in this research, this approach is not utilized.

Phenomenological paradigm Of An investigation into the factors affecting ethical procedures within SCM

Phenomenology is a form of qualitative research that focuses on the study of an individual's lived experiences within the world. Although it is a powerful approach for inquiry, the nature of this methodology is often intimidating to HPE researchers

State which one will be used Of An investigation into the factors affecting ethical procedures within SCM

 The composition of this research, Phenomenological paradigm has been considered. Actually, it is one of the most suitable and best philosophies for evaluating and exploring the concept of supply chain management. The research approach of Phenomenological involves researchers interpreting different concepts and elements in a study. In general, this research philosophy is selected for complimenting qualitative methods of research. Positivism research, on the other hand, is often selected when primary methods of research are considered

 Research philosophy for the current study will be based on the qualitative research as it focuses or identifies abstract concepts. Thus, the quantitative analysis collects numerical data. The major difference between the qualitative research and quantitative analysis is about the action applied and in the size of the sample; there will be a focus on the philosophical ideas based on understanding human behaviour. Through logical observation, natural phenomena will be analysed.

8.3 Sampling Strategy

Target Population

Define what a target population is.

A target population is a certain group of the population that share similar characteristics and is identified as the intended audience for a product, advertising or research

Define your target population.

The first step is to engage communities as they are the ones who are on the receiving end of service delivery and it also affects their growth in terms of social uplift and improvement of their lives. Secondly, it would be the multi-corporate employees and government employees as they are the most active participants as full-time professions in the field of supply chains. Lastly, it would be the students as prospective workers and future implementers and leaders of society to raise awareness especially those that are in the field of the supply chain. Academic professionals and leaders with their experience acquired while practicing supply chain management in various departments (Bryman & Cramer, 2005).     

Who will be your TP?                                        

·         Engage communities

·         Multi-corporate employees and government employees

·         Students as prospective workers and future implementers and leaders

The data will be collected from the top 10 supply chain companies in South Africa.

Sampling
Define a sample

A sample is a set of individuals or objects collected or selected from a statispopulation by a defined procedure.

Probability Sampling 

Probability Sampling is a sampling technique in which sample from a larger population are chosen using a method based on the theory of probability

Non-probability sampling 

Non-probability sampling is a sampling technique where the samples are gathered in a process that does not give all the individuals in the population equal chances of being selected

Which one is used

Sampling strategy could be explained as research/survey result and the selection of participants. The sample size will consist of a minimum of ten participants, this sample size is appropriate for qualitative research. To collect the data, the simple random sampling technique however, the simple random sampling technique is also known as the probability sampling technique. . So, it is also needed to understand what influence do they have in relation to the decision-making process and how does it affect their job and delivery of services within turn-around time and also understand their supervisions and monitoring of service providers.

It will also be tried to get helping hands in a form of other tertiary institutions students to cast the net wide in order to reach different constituent groups and also to test sampling methodology in terms of character and economic behaviour of individuals or groups taking into account their cultural and religious background.

8.4 Data Collection

The interviews will be used to collect the information from the respondents, however, the interview will be self-made and there will be 10 questions based on the performance of the ethical supply chain management in companies.

-          Data is going to be collected through interview

-          A set of questions will be developed and asked by the participants of the research

-          Other points raised through discussions will be recorded to respect the views of other people.

It is important to define the data analysis method for this particular research. It is mentioned above that quantitative methodology will be used by the interview.

Data analysis

Thematic analysis

Thematic analysis is a method of analyzing qualitative data. It is usually applied to a set of texts, such as interview transcripts. The researcher closely examines the data to identify common themes topics, ideas and patterns of meaning that come up repeatedly.

9. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS                                               

The data or information will be taken from the participants with their consent; there will be informed consent because everyone has the right of autonomy and the individual is protected so consent in a clear way will be there. The participants or the members will be assured that there will be no harm comes to participants; there will be an ethical rule of beneficence rather than influencing them.

Confidentiality and anonymity will be there and participants will be told that the questionnaire will follow the right of ensuring that his information is not disclosed in public.  The issue of ethics becomes very sensitive; therefore, the participants must be assured about the confidentiality purposes.

Permission will be obtained from the respondents that for the research purpose their data or answers can be used but their confidentiality will be protected. The researchers need to respect confidentiality and there should be no disclosure of private information.

10. PROPOSED TIMETABLE

9. Appendices

Appendix A: Interview Schedule Of An investigation into the factors affecting ethical procedures within SCM

This interview schedule has been designed in line with the aims and objectives of this study. The following questions will be asked to each participant, during interviews which are estimated to take approximately 30 minutes each.

Section 1: Demographics Of An investigation into the factors affecting ethical procedures within SCM

1.      Name

2.      Age

3.      Gender

4.      Population group

5.      Position

6.      No of years at company

7.      Highest level of Education

Section 2: interview questions

1.      How would you describe the supply chain management culture at your place of employment?

2.      Do you feel that your organisation practises Ethical supply chain management?

If yes, please provide an example of how.

3.      In supply chain management what factors are affecting the ethical procedures?

4.      Do you believe that Ethical supply chain management can effectively help companies to grow by following proper supplier contracts and codes of conduct?

If yes, please explain why.

5.      Do you believe Ethical supply chain management can resolve the issues related to business interruption? Please indicate how.

6.      Do you believe that through Ethical supply chain management your company is avoiding issues related to the reputational damage?

If yes, please explain how.

7.      Do you believe that through assuring supply chain ethics your company is marinating its transparency and visibility?

If yes, please explain how.

8.      Do you believe that your company is retaining its worker force and improving its labour conditions by considering efficient practices of ethical supply chain management?

If yes, please explain how.

9.      Do you believe that through implementing ethical supply chain management your company is fighting against corruption example, bribery, and extortion?

If yes, please explain how.

10.  Do you believe that through implementing ethical supply chain management your company is making the better efforts to uphold environmental responsibility?

Please indicate how.

11.  Do you believe that your company is effectively defending human rights in through considering Ethical supply chain management?

If yes, please explain how.                                               

Appendix B: Ethical Clearance

FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY:

BIBLIOGRAPHY Of An investigation into the factors affecting ethical procedures within SCM

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Boström, M. et al., 2015. Sustainable and responsible supply chain governance: challenges and opportunities. Journal of Cleaner Production, pp. 1-7.

Bryman, A. & Cramer, D., 2005. Quantitative Data Analysis with SPSS 12 and 13: A Guide for Social Scientists. s.l.: Psychology Press.

Busse, C., Meinlschmidt, J. & Foerstl, K., 2017. Managing information processing needs in global supply chains: A prerequisite to sustainable supply chain management. Journal of Supply Chain Management, pp. 87-113.

Genovese, A., Acquaye, A. A., Figueroa, A. & Koh, S. L., 2017. Sustainable supply chain management and the transition towards a circular economy: Evidence and some applications. pp. 344-357.

Ivanov, D., Tsipoulanidis, A. & Schönberger, J., 2017. Global supply chain and operations management. A Decision-Oriented Introduction to the Creation of Value.

Johnson, P. F. & Flynn, A. E., 2015. Purchasing and Supply Management. 15th ed. s.l.:McGraw-Hill Education.

Lambert, D. M. a. M. G., 2017. Issues in supply chain management: Progress and potential. Industrial Marketing Management, pp. 1-16.

Lummus, R., Vokurka, R. J. & Krumwiede, D., 2008. Supply chain integration and organizational success. SAM Advanced Management Journal, 73(1), pp. 56-62.

Muijs, D., 2010. Doing Quantitative Research in Education with SPSS. s.l.: SAGE.

Perkins , B. & Wailgum, T., 2017. What is supply chain management (SCM)? Mastering logistics end to end. [Online]
Available at: https://www.cio.com/article/2439493/what-is-supply-chain-management-scm-mastering-logistics-end-to-end.html
[Accessed 21 February 2020].

Stadtler, H., 2015. Supply chain management: An overview. Supply chain management and advanced planning, pp. 3-28.

Stevens, G. C. & Johnson, M., 2016. Integrating the supply chain… 25 years on. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, pp. 19-42.

Yusuf, Y. Y., Hawkins, A., Musa, A. & El-Berishy, N., 2014. Ethical supply chains: Analysis, practices and performance measures. International Journal of Logistics Systems and Management, 17(4), pp. 472 - 49