Ethical Leadership in South Africa and Botswana

This study was conducted to investigate the extent of ethical leadership practices in African public utilities, given the relatively high corruption reported in its institutions, with consequences of seriously constrained development of the national economy and significant hindrance to good governance. Our aim was to establish potential benefits from ethical leadership in public sector agencies, by analysing ethical leadership characteristics of leaders in the public sector from Botswana and South Africa. We measured ethical leadership perceptions utilizing a combination of scales in an attempt to encompass the larger breadth of ethical leadership scales in literature, to determine how employees perceived their managers in terms of being moral people and moral managers. A total of 108 respondents completed questionnaires. Results indicate that there were significant differences between the perceptions of managers’ moral conduct. South African leaders were perceived as relatively weaker moral managers as compared to those in Botswana.


INTRODUCTION
Ethical leadership has been shown to have considerable benefits for both organizations and businesses. Tanner, Brugger, van Schie, & Lebherz, (2010) ;Mayer, Kuenzi, & Greenbaum, (2010) and Folger (2010) demonstrate that it reduces employee absenteeism, misconduct and improves job satisfaction and performance. Rubin, Dierdorff, & Brown (2010) also show that managers who are ethical leaders are often perceived to be more suitable to promotional opportunities. It is therefore an important pillar to the successful running of organisations, particularly in nations where relatively higher cases of corruption are recorded (Conrad, 2010). Heres and Lasthuizen (2010) note that the majority of studies on ethical leadership conducted in the US were mainly on the business environment, essentially ignoring the societal and organizational factors that may affect notions and manifestations of ethical leadership.
Similarly, in Africa, most studies on ethics focus on the private sector, neglecting the public sector, which directly affects citizens.
In 2005, the South African government launched an initiative "Batho Pele", meaning 'people first', which was aimed at improving integrity with public administration through tighter monitoring of officials' performance and compliance with ethical practice. However, Raga and Taylor (2005) argued that such legislation and proliferation of ethical codes of conduct would still be unlikely to put unethical behaviour to an end and suggested that public officials should be indoctrinated with attitudes and virtues for guiding human conduct, since the public sector presented numerous testing situations due to its diversity. Importantly, integrity training helps officials to gain confidence in providing efficient, ethical, and accountable services.
. Although considerable research has been devoted to ethics, rather less attention has been paid to ethical leadership. Given that, a number of African countries have witnessed huge maladministration of public funds and corruption, this study argues that such behaviour is mainly attributed to leadership. Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng while addressing delegates at the Serious Social Investing Conference (2016) in South Africa pointed that South Africa needs ethical leaders who are not corrupt (Eyewitness News, 2016). This view was mainly attributed to the landslide Constitutional ruling in South Africa, were President Zuma was said to have enriched himself with public funds. The South African Constitutional Court ruled that the President failed to uphold, defend and respect the Constitution by using taxpayer's money for his homestead upgrades. On the other hand, Botswana has an established Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime dealing with cases such as corruption, embezzlement, fraud to name a few. Given the magnitude of this challenge, a study of this nature was a necessity.
Consequently, we argue that ethical leadership decadence in public entities is an urgent problem that needs to be addressed instant.
The objective of the study is to assess ethical leadership in African countries, namely South Africa and Botswana. By comparing them, we aim to identify the shortfalls in ethical leadership, focusing on South African public institutions, which could be addressed to improve the performance of local governance. However, it is noteworthy that ethical violations, corruption, and maladministration are not problems specific to African countries only. For example, the Ethics Resource Centre (2008) conducted a national survey in the United States and found that "57 percent of government employees reported that they had witnessed a violation of ethical standards, policies, or law in their workplace during the previous 12-month period," of which a third went, unreported. Kaptein et al., (2005) points out that these take the form of misquoting hours worked, unfair treatment of workers, sexual harassment, and violations of privacy.
The rest of the paper is organised as follows: Section 2 provides the literature review; Section 3 provides the methodology that was utilised in the study; Section 4 provides the findings and discussion of the results; lastly, section 5 concludes the study and provide recommendations.

Bostwana
Botswana has relatively strong and well-functioning governance institutions, both public and private. The country has a dual legal system, comprising of customary law and common law, which consists of English and Roman Dutch law, as amended by statutes (UNODC, 2014). The Constitution that was adopted in 1965 positioned the institutional frameworks that recognize the parliament as a law-making, representative and oversight branch of the state aimed to make sure that the executive, under the President as the Head of State, delivers on its mandate (Sebudubudu, 2014). The executive in turn has a largely politically neutral civil service to implement all policies, plans and development programmes, including the provision of services to the public in an efficacy manner. Therefore, the Constitution established a non-racial democracy, maintaining freedom of speech, of the press and of association, and affording all citizens equal rights (UNODC, 2012). Sebudubudu (2014) points out that the public sector in Botswana is prone to many cases of unethical practices, where many cases are of sophisticated white collar crime, and senior private business leaders, politicians and senior government officials who are engaging in deals involving their own families. The government established well-known authorities to fight unethical and poor governance (Office of Auditor General, 2008). It Enacted the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) Act in September 1994(Gabriel, 2013. The DCEC is an operationally autonomous law enforcement agency charged with a three dedicated directives: to investigate allegations of corruption and economic crime, as well as suspicious transactions and to share investigative results with the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for possible trials. Other mandates are to prevent corruption in the public sector by auditing government and state-owned institutions and lastly to raise awareness of the risks of corruption through public education activities (Sebudubudu, 2014). In 2012, the Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC) received 1778 cases and 589 classifieds for investigations (Mwamba, 2013). Additionally, nepotism is also rampant in the government, involving senior people and many members of the cabinet (Mmegi, 2013). However, among SADC countries it is a leading country in control of corruption indicators compared to others countries; Corruption

South Africa
The systems of ethics and governance frameworks in the public sector in the South African context can be well traced and explained fully after the apartheid regime than during apartheid.
A new constitution was developed in 1996 under the platform of non-racialism and equality of all citizens (South Africa Constitution, 1996). The new constitution tried to address such mythical values of apartheid to the public sector. Section 195 of the Constitution states that the public administration must be governed by the democratic values and principles enshrined in the Constitution. Public administration must be broadly representative of the South African people, with employment and personnel management practices based on ability, objectivity, fairness and the need to redress the imbalances of the past to achieve broad representation (South Africa Constitution, 1996).
In response to section 195 of the constitution, (Rosenbaum 1997) contended that public sectors were reshaped for their new role in the country where among other seven transformation priorities the public sector ethics as well as efficacy and accountability were emphasized. Since then, Malunga (2014) asserts that South Africa has responded by implementing a range of legislations and the creation of democratic institutions as vital shields in its quest to build national integrity and fight corruption. This was not easy because the heterogeneous and multicultural society still experienced a flood of corruption as well as moral relativism and moral contextual of apartheid regime (Hilliard and Ferreira, 2001). To suit the needs of the country particularly the public sector, several ethics and governance measures were adopted in relation to international and national frameworks (Malunga, 2014). Such measures (policies, legislative and regulatory frameworks) consist of the key institutions, sectors, laws, practices and specific mechanisms that together contribute to enhancing good governance.
These include the following: The Public Service Commission, this is an institution established in terms of Chapter 10 of the Constitution 1996 with a mandate of promoting a high standard of professional ethics in the public sector and to investigate, monitor, and evaluate the organization, administration, and personnel practices of the public service (PSC, 2010). In addition, the institution focuses on performing a vital role in the development of the Code of Conduct for the Public Sector that forms the basis of the public sector's integrity framework as it sets values for ethical conduct across the country. Another institution is the Public Protector, which is a national Ombudsman established under section 181 of the Constitution which forms part of the national integrity framework, and has two dimensions of mandate (Disoloane, 2012;Malunga, 2014;DPSA, 2003). The Public Protector's role in anticorruption also recognized in the key anticorruption statutes including the Prevention and Combating of Corruption Act, the Protected Disclosures Act ant the Public Finance Management Act. For example, the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act specifically gives the Public Protector the authority to investigate any improper or dishonest act, or omission or offences referred to in the Act, with respect to public money (Malunga, 2014;Madonsela, 2010) Ethical leadership Bok (1990) highlighted that before the Second World War, strengthening and building the character of students through moral education was considered an important aspect in one's intellectual life, but the idea had faded in public administration in a society that increasingly encouraged tolerance rather than commitment to a single set of moral guidelines. Menzel (1997) conducted a survey with 78 members of National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) to explore perceptions on the impact that undertaking a course in ethics had on public administration students later in their careers. The survey suggested that education in ethics had helped public officials to deal with challenges of moral issues at work. More importantly, ethics educators "developed an awareness of ethical issues and cultivated an attitude of moral obligation and personal responsibility in pursuing a career in the public service" (Menzel, 1997).
As a potential solution to corruption and the lack of moral values in organisations, a comprehensively discussed concept is ethical leadership. Brown et al., (2005) define ethical leadership as "the demonstration of normatively appropriate conduct through personal actions and interpersonal relationships, and the promotion of such conduct to followers through twoway communication, reinforcement, and decision making." Commentators on ethical leadership that include Brown et al., 2005;De Hoogh and Den Hartog (2008), conceptualize ethical leadership as a set of behaviours or a separate leadership style in itself rather than focusing only on the ethical components of other leadership styles. Kanungo (2001) andTurner et al., (2002) discuss ethical leadership as a pressure exerted on officials to choose between the good and the bad, referred to as altruistic and egoistic motives. Leaders can improve the performance of an organization by influencing the performance of their subordinates through behaviours such as expressing a convincing vision, leading by example, and the use of symbols, rituals, ceremonies, and stories (Yukl, 2008). Brown et al., (2005) described ethical leaders as models of ethical conduct who become the targets of identification and emulation for followers.
For leaders to be perceived as ethical leaders and to influence ethics-related outcomes, subordinates must perceive them as attractive, credible, and legitimate (Brown, 2005). This is achieved through engaging in behaviour that is clearly viewed as appropriate such as openness and honesty and motivated by altruism (e.g., treating employees fairly and considerately). Ethical leaders must also gain followers' attention to the ethics message by engaging in explicit ethics-related communication and by using reinforcement to support the ethics message. They make organisational decisions carefully aligned with ethical values and consider that the right decision is always that which falls on the ethics side. Additionally, they constantly highlight to workers the importance and contents of ethical behaviour hence making it clear for employees that upholding ethics is a vital component of their work. Social learning theory specifies, "Individuals are more likely to pay attention to the behaviour of credible and high status models that have control over valued rewards," and so in administrations leaders are viewed as role models owing to their organisational rank and managerial powers (Suff et al., 2007).
However, Yukl (2008) noted that at times the side effects of leader behaviours on one performance determinant might have adverse consequences on another. For instance, an applicable case in public administration is when workers are empowered to make work related decisions, they may become more motivated and gain more satisfaction from their jobs, but if employees become fixated on successful customer service, the number of served customers may decrease, resulting in lower efficiency.
According to Brown et al., (2005), most ethical leadership discussions are associated with transformational and charismatic leadership paradigms. Leaders who were transforming their behaviours were more likely to motivate subordinates to follow by engaging in moral practice systems. Hence, the assumption is that followers view the leader as a role model. Kelman (1958) asserted that the change in attitudes emanating from social influence occurs at three different levels namely compliance, identification, and internalisation. Compliance is when an individual accepts influence essentially to avoid punishment or to gain specific rewards, regardless of their beliefs. In the context of public administration, it is worthwhile to note that this motive based on gains may be overlooked by the potential gains an individual would expect from conducting unethical behaviour or corruption. Kanungo and Mendonca (1996) however argued that the strategy was unethical in itself, as it coerced followers and undermined their dignity, which could result in self-denial or loss of self-esteem for the benefit of the leader.
Identification was described as when one accepts influence due to wanting to establish a selfdefining relationship to another person or group. Therefore, again, the individual is not concerned with their personal beliefs towards the adopted morals or behaviour. Lastly, in internalisation, the individual's personal values align with the new behaviour or believe that it is a useful solution to a problem. A study by Turner et al., (2002) supported the notion of successful transformation influence to ethical conduct from superiors. It was however found unrelated to transactional leadership, influence based on contingent reinforcement, a contrasting view to Kelman's (1958) propositions. Transactional leadership is a style of leadership in which leader promote compliance of followers through punishments and rewards. Reidenbach and Robin (1990) theorized that individuals used numerous philosophical viewpoints of ethics and morals, which included justice, relativism, egoism, utilitarianism, and deontology, when making ethical judgments. Ethical judgments were distinguished to emanate from three perspectives: moral equity, contractualism, and relativistic judgments. A decision made in the moral equity perspective is motivated by one's assessment of the action in terms of its moral righteousness, justice, and fairness. Contractualism emphases on one's understood obligations on their job. The relativistic perspective considers the appropriateness of a decision centred on the relative moral standards of the organisation. Mayer et al., (2009) discuss the concept of a work place's ethical climate facilitating the association of ethical leadership and employee delinquency and define ethical climate as 'the holistic impression that individuals have regarding ethical policies, practices, and procedures within a unit or organization'. To achieve an ethical environment at a work place, ethical leaders actively establish practices that strictly adhere to conserving ethical values. Ethical leaders demonstrate to employees that ethical standards are a priority, even when they have to be upheld at the expense of the organisation's immediate objectives. In principle, by exemplary behaviour, ethical leaders build an environment in which employees consider ethical values as an important part of their work. Stringer (2002) further supports the notion by observing that most leadership research findings show that the behaviour of leaders is the most influential aspect determining the organisational climate. More interestingly, Schminke et al., (2005) empirically establish that the leader's moral development and the consistency between the leader's moral development and actions are strong determinants of an organisation's ethical climate. This followed extensive conceptual work by Dickson et al., (2001), Logsdon and Corzine, (1999); Logsdon and Yuthas, (1997) ;Sims, (2000); Sims and Brinkman, (2002) and Trevino et al., (2000) which posed that leaders' personal characteristics such as moral development had substantial influence to an organizations' ethical climate. Sims and Brinkmann (2002) demonstrate that leaders shape and reinforce an ethical or unethical organizational climate by what they consider as priorities, their solutions to predicaments, behaviour in the organisation, how they behave, how they allot rewards, and their principles in recruitment and dismissal of employees. Leadership that is consistent in their focus and priorities pass on strong message to the employees, about the important values in an institution. In contrast, inconsistent behaviour influences subordinates to relax commitment to the rules and values. Trevino and Nelson (1999) also pose that when leaders concentrate on maximising organisational short-term financial gains, employees adopt similar practices at the expense of values. As an additional benefit to cultivating a culture of high ethical values, Obalola, Aduloju and Olowokudejo's (2012) and Valentine et al., (2002) found that employees were more likely to be strongly committed to an organisation that promoted and upheld ethical values.  Peterson et al., (2002) found that age was a significant variable for ethical behaviour. Mature employees seemed to possess higher ethical values compared to the younger workers and showed stronger resistance to external influence from sources such as their personal circumstances or from other individuals.

Other variables of the ethical environment
Regarding the gender variable, Kracher, Chatterjee and Lundquist (2002), and Peterson et al., (2002) found that commitment to ethical values differed remarkably within gender. Betz, O'Connell and Shepard (1989) found that men were twice more likely and more willing to engage in unethical behaviour when it comes to work-related values and willingness to engage in unethical behaviour, compared to women. Prior research by Ruegger and King (1992), Longenecker et al., (1989) and Weeks et al., (1999) supported that women tend to hold a stricter stance on maintaining ethical considerations than men.
Furthermore, Peterson et al., (2001) found that gender and age were predictors of ethical beliefs in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC. However, research on ethical culture, job retention and performance (known as work engagement, job satisfaction, organisational commitment and OCB) in the context of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has not yet been empirically conducted. Therefore, this study suggests that gender, age, educational level and length of service will moderate the relationship between ethical climate and job retention and performance constructs. In addition to gender, Pierce and Sweeney (2010) found that firm size had significant association with ethical decision-making.

Frameworks for measuring ethical leadership
Prior to 2007, Brown et al., (2005) ;Ciulla, (2004); Iles and Macaulay, (2007) reported that the concept of ethical leadership remained largely unexplored, suggesting research opportunities 'for new discoveries and leaders' opportunities to improve their effectiveness. Since then, modelling a measure of ethical leadership has received considerable attention from researchers.
One of the most influential was the Ethical Leadership Scale (ELS). Brown et al., (2005) pose that the instrument they developed to measure ethical leadership (ELS) "is consistent with the proposed theoretical perspective and captures the breadth of the ethical leadership construct." Item generation was developed from a process that initially started with pool of 48 items based on previous theorizing and research and generated categories similar to those found by Treviño et al., (2003). According to the ELS model, ethical leadership develops from fundamental features and conduct, which include demonstrating integrity and high ethical standards, considerate and fair treatment of employees, and holding employees accountable for ethical conduct. Additionally, they pose that their tool is highly reliable, and statistically predicts relationships with variables in the sphere of ethical leadership. Moreover, descriptions of ethical leadership characteristics from different subordinates of one superior were found to be matching when utilising the ELS, suggesting its reliability. Another advantage pointed out was that given the diverse characteristics associated with ethical leadership, the ELS is a convenient summarised model that is easy to apply in research. Despite the wide perception that ethical leadership is a multi-faceted concept, Kalshoven (2011)  Questionnaires Barbuto and Wheeler (2006) were found not to appear to describe essential aspects of ethical leadership. Yukl et al. (2013) argue that the interpersonal skills and wisdom qualities described in other servant leadership models could enhance "problem solving but do not necessarily result in decisions that are ethical. Yukl et al., (2013) summarize the most relevant principles of ethical leadership as: "honesty and integrity (including consistency of actions with espoused values), (b) behaviour intended to communicate or enforce ethical standards, (c) fairness in decisions and the distribution of rewards (no favouritism or use of rewards to motivate improper behaviour), and (d) behaviour that shows kindness, compassion, and concern for the needs and feelings of others (rather than attempts to manipulate, abuse, and exploit others for personal gain)." They design an ethical leadership questionnaire (ELQ), and note that compared to previous models, the ELQ has distinct advantages in that it includes the fundamental forms of ethical conduct, "it is not confounded by other leader behaviours, and it is short and easy to use." Finally, (to the scope of this study) Conrad (2013) developed the Corporate Culture Ethical Leadership Scale (CCELS), which particularly addressed problems associated with previous ethics questionnaires. Highlights include more unambiguous and in depth questions than the ELS items, to address the criticism that many of the ELS items are abstract and expect respondents to be relatively competent about what characterizes ethical leadership (Tanner et al., 2010). Furthermore, the CCELS advances the question of misuse of powera theme commonly associated with unethical leadership, and so appearing to eliminate ELS' limitation of excluding important aspects of leadership as discussed before (Conrad, 2013).

METHODOLOGY
This study used a quantitative method approach. The investigation merited a quantitative approach because quantitative data helped to provide a deeper understanding to the issue under study. Quantifying leadership traits using a scale helped provide better understanding of their leadership. This was made possible by simple comparing the response to the scale.

Sample
The sample comprised of 64 South African employees in public institutions, which included Provincial and District Municipalities. In addition, 44 public service workers from Botswana were included in the survey, to facilitate comparisons. In total, this meant the survey participants were 108. The higher South African sample was capacitated by the researcher's study area, yet in Botswanalimited financial budget and time were hindrances to collecting data from more respondents. Pseudonyms were given to the supervisors to track their ratings and to facilitate analysis of age, work experience and gender differences. The respondents in South Africa were from the Public Service Commission (15); Department of Public Works (22) and Department of Public Enterprises (27). Yet, in Botswana, the respondents were from the Ministry of Local Government. In both countries, respondents from the selected government departments were chosen based on their proximity to public service delivery were they practise leadership on day-to-day basis compared to other departments. In both countries, all the respondents were in management positions were there were leading people in their various capacities as government employees. All the respondents were purposively sampled, since special attention was on public service employees who were in leadership positions (Managers and Directors).

Procedures
Semi structured questionnaires were utilised to solicit information from participants from the two countries. Contact was first made through the organisations and then emails were sent to candidates requesting their willingness to participate in the in the survey. Finally, questionnaires were delivered to respondents and requested to be returned within a week, in an effort of avoiding pressuring respondents and simultaneously meeting the deadline times afforded to conduct fieldwork surveys. The data was collected in the period of 2013-2014 by the researcher in both countries with the cooperation of the personal assistants or administrators of the senior managers or Directors. Descriptive statistics were utilised to analyse the gathered data.

Measures
To maintain continuity on earlier research, items included in the ethical leadership measuring questionnaire (contained in Appendix 1) were based principally on recent models of measuring ethical leadership, namely, Brown et al.,'s (2005) Ethical Leadership Scale (ELS), the seven ethical leader behaviours developed by Kalshoven et al., (2011), and a new measure -Conrad's (2013) corporate culture scale. While there are close similarities amongst the measures used within each model, each claims and demonstrates development from the previous, and hence possesses advantages from the previous model Section 2.3 has discussed these in detail.
According to Michie and Gooty (2005); Van Wart 2005 and Treviño et al., (2003), "ethical leaders (additionally) have genuine interest in others' well-being and the broader common good." Therefore, question 13 was included to measure this aspect. The models using perceptions of employees were preferred following self-perception reporting research that suggested that leaders would most probably biasedly disassociate themselves with negative behaviour and rate themselves favourably (Ashford, (1989); Atwater et al., (1998) andBrown et al., (2005). All items were measured on 5-point Likert scales ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). As Conrad (2013) suggests, the scale also includes Q11 -a question that taps one of the most common unethical leadership themes across cultures: the misuse of power (Resick et al., 2011) which partially addresses the ELS limitation of not including some relevant aspects of ethical leadership (Yukl, Mahsud, Hassan, & Prussia, 2011).
T-tests were utilised to test the significances of mean differences in comparing morality perceptions of managers in South Africa and Botswana.

FINDINGS
The demographic findings of the study revealed that the sample (N=64) in South Africa was dominated by males (63%) who were between the ages of 40-65 years. In terms of qualifications held, majority (71%) of the respondents held at least a postgraduate qualification.
Yet, in terms of experience in their current position, the majority had 10-15 years of experience.
While in Botswana, 58 percent of the respondents (N=44) were males. On average, the most dominant age group was between 34-45 years, and in terms of experience, the majority had between 5-10 years of experience. Likewise, most held a degree qualification or diploma. There were striking differences between the two countries mainly because of the public services developmental resources available for employees. South Africa has one of the most efficient public service in Africa, while Botswana is a leading country in terms of less corruption in public service (United Nations Public Administration and Development Management, 2013). Table 1 shows the utilised ethical leadership items in the order of their average scores from South Africa, and (not in order) Botswana. performance has been made possible largely, by the quality of its public administration, the calibre of people employed in it, and the appropriateness of the institutions and processes put in place. Alexander and Kaboyakgosi (2012) also conclude their study by mentioning that "in Botswana, services are provided because it is 'the right thing to do', not because they are recognised as rights to be progressively realised. This was further reflected through a survey conducted in Botswana in 2008, respondents were asked: 'How well or badly would you say the current government is handling or managing the economy, or haven't you heard enough to say?' More than three quarters (76%) of respondents rated the government as doing fairly well or very well (Alexander and Kaboyakgosi 2012).
The effort towards ethical leadership 'actions' in South Africa, shown by a higher mean, may be a reflection of government policies and awareness campaigns that have been initiated to fight corruption and initiate integrity (The Public Service Commission, 2005). However, this is not enough to combat the ills, since the data suggests that managers have only positively responded by being involved in physical action that promotes or supports ethical leadership.
Other more important aspects of ethical leadership, involving attitudes and traits, that are more likely to influence employees in upholding moral values, seem to still lag behind. Since awareness of the moral values seems evident (by communicating or appropriate ethical conduct in the presence of employees), the problem may be emanating from lack of accountability for top managers. This is further supported by the fact that the four lowest ranked items seem to point to negative attitudes towards ethical leadership principles, and not ignorance thereto.
These were: (My supervisor/ Manager) Can be trusted to carry out promises and commitments; Is honest and can be trusted to tell the truth; Insists on doing what is fair and ethical even when it is not easy; Keeps their actions consistent with their stated values ("walks the talk"); Sets an example of ethical behaviour in their decisions and actions. Enforcement of ethical principles at the top level of managers is therefore a possible problem.
The findings of this study are consistent to Rasheed's (2014) observations that "The lack of accountability, unethical behaviour and corrupt practices have become so pervasive, and even institutionalised norms of behaviour in Africa, to the extent that one may conveniently speak of a crisis of ethics in African public services. While one could single out a few countries, such as Namibia and Botswana, in which 'tolerable' levels of corruption exists, unfortunately the opposite is true in the majority of African countries." The success of Botswana has been substantiated by its commitment to good governance and opening an Ombudsman office in 1997. Furthermore, the UNCCR (2014:39) reports that that the country does not have special legislation that addresses commercial disputes and that it still has to appoint an independent regulatory body, which hints on the level of moral values in Botswana.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Having identified the source of hindrances to ethical leadership in Botswana and South African public utilities using the survey, we recommend that efforts should be made firstly, to make it easier for subordinates to report ethical misconduct. The item 'Is open to communications and a good listenerthey say what they think and people feel comfortable talking with them (even about "bad news")' was ranked relatively lowly (twelfth out of eighteen). For example, employees should be encouraged to use anonymous reports and even direct communication with approachable managers to disclose misconduct. Similarly, Yukl (2013) (Dineen et al., 2006). Another potential solution to problems of ethical conduct could be providing ethics training to employees, to indoctrinate ethical behaviour and to help improve understanding the importance of ethical leadership and values and using ethics as a criterion in hiring and promotion decisions (West and Berman 2004). The results of this study contribute to the current discourse on ethical leadership, and how it affects service delivery in some African countries.
South Africa and Botswana are diverse countries with differing cultures, possible differences between South Africa and Botswana on what entails ethics, may have negative effects on the findings (and comparisons) in this study. Therefore, we suggest that as an area of further research, the definitions and characteristics of ethical leaderships in South Africa and amongst other African nations, be investigated as has been with countries such as Ireland, China, U.S (Resick et al., 2011) and Kahakstan (Conrad, 2013). Additionally, the study did not account for other effects such as possible effects of demographic aspects that may be involved in ethical leadership or conduct. For example, Browning and Zabriskie (1983) Murphy et al. (1992) and Weber (1990) found that the size of organisation tends to influence ethical decision-making and that as size of the organisation increases, individual ethical beliefs and ethical decisionmaking behaviour decreases. We propose that in future models, these factors be explored in an African context, which would facilitate knowing where to direct effort to develop ethical leadership and conduct. The reason being that culture and beliefs plays a significant role in leadership, especially in the sub-Saharan Africa.

Q11
Uses their power wiselythey use power to help most people and not just to benefit themselves and/or their "close people."

Q12
Is fair and objective when evaluating member performance and providing rewards Q13 Puts the needs of others above his/her own self-interest Q14 Acknowledges mistakes and takes responsibility for them Q15 Is honest and can be trusted to tell the truth

Q16
Insists on doing what is fair and ethical even when it is not easy Q17 Keeps their actions consistent with their stated values ("walks the talk")

Q18
Sets an example of ethical behaviour in their decisions and actions