Research carried out by the Institute
of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW) notes that: “Integrity
is a much-desired but little-understood feature of organizations and of the
individuals they employ. It features widely in codes of conduct and lists of
ethical principles. A lack of integrity is frequently cited as a cause of
crises and scandals in business and public life. On the other hand few people
have a clear idea of what integrity means or how it should be understood
separately from ethical behaviour more generally.” According to this research, the responsibility for promoting integrity in organizations ultimately falls to their leaders. Therefore, the aim of the research was to provide practical solutions for organizational leaders to help them achieve this. In addition, there is a clear need to involve human resources in activities, since they have access to many of the organizational levers that can make a difference. The research was conducted in three stages: a desk-based review of academic literature, a large-scale online survey of Chartered Accountants and a series of 94 semi-structured one-on-one interviews with people working in a variety of organizations.
Four major themes arise in the philosophical literature on integrity which can be synthesized into an account of integrity. People of integrity partly define themselves by, and act consistently on the basis of, principles and commitments, at least some of which are ethical in nature and which include honesty, openness and fairness. They will also stand up for their principles and thereby attempt to influence the culture of their organization or society.
Professional integrity involves commitment to the founding values of a profession and may involve attempting to influence the culture of that profession. As well as having employees with greater or lesser degrees of integrity, organizations can exhibit integrity by achieving consistency between their expressed values and what is genuinely valued within the organization by valuing ethical behaviour and by taking a wider view of the social context in which they operate.
To learn more, read the 2012 ICAEW Briefing and related publication REAL INTEGRITY: Practical Solutions for Organisations Seeking to Promote and Encourage Integrity by Jim Baxter, James Dempsey, Chris Megone and Jongseok Lee at the University of Leeds. Also, refer to other guidance on “integrity” matters.
