Integrity in the Corporate World

Integrity - Value without compromise

Recent events in the corporate world have focused attention on the need to renew our commitment to honesty in our business dealings, and to firmly plant integrity within corporate business practices.

It is important to make the distinction between the terms 'real' honesty and honesty as a 'policy', and to show how it relates to integrity.

Honesty as a 'policy' means honesty is used as a tool to achieve a result, but it is not an integral and natural part of corporate life practices. It is a selling strategy that advertises honesty as a virtue, trading on the hope you will believe the organization is honest, and cashing in on that belief. A rather dishonest approach to business, wouldn't you say?

Such honesty is usually tied to profits ' as long as there are profits, there is honesty. When the profits start dissipating, the first thing to go is the honesty ' you start to cut corners.

Real honesty on the other hand is unconditional and is not traded as a virtue or paraded as a unique quality. The person/organization, who truly has integrity sees it as an integral part of who they are. It is a natural quality that does not change as outside circumstances shift (note the similarity of the words integral and integrity).

This is where the meaning of integrity is fully appreciated - integrity is an embedded honesty in the affairs of the person or the company and it is unconditional.

Curiously, one of the dictionary meanings of the word integrity is wholesomeness. In the corporate context, integrity would translate to business practices whereby everyone in the organization, top executives and ordinary employees alike see themselves as one body, all pulling in the same direction with clear demarcation of responsibilities, but without hidden agendas. Well, this is exactly where the issue of lack of integrity is very clear.

The intent of this article is to challenge you to take a real and in-depth look at the issue. Any organization wanting to survive and succeed in the future needs to do some introspective analysis about their business practices, adopt solutions that fit their organization and ensure they are acting ethically.

We need to ask the question 'In corporate America, are we seeing a conflict between the different levels in the organization?' Do top executives see themselves as separate from the rest of the organization, and does that view cause a separation that does not allow integrity to exist? If it is true, then the challenge is: 'What can be done to focus the organization as a single entity, under a single vision resonating with the same pitch throughout the different levels?'

The steps to accomplishing an approach to business that resounds with integrity are simple yet a bit perplexing at the same time:

First, analyze your organizational environment and the work ethics in place. Are you saying one thing and doing another? Evaluate the discrepancies and the distance between intentions and actions.

In summary, we all like to think we have integrity, and to some extent we probably do, but integrity is a quality that gets challenged regularly by greed and ambition. It therefore requires an environment designed to reject outside pressures and interference., Establishing an integrity supporting ecology is a key ingredient without which improvement and changes will not survive in the long run and will only amount to cosmetic alterations.

Furthermore, having established an integrity sensitive environment requires regular 'house-cleaning' practices, designed to foster trust and confidence among the employees.

We are in rapidly changing times where, almost daily, accepted paradigms shift and require new levels of thinking and analysis, especially in the human realms - nothing can be taken for granted!

It is important to understand that without the presence of true integrity in the work place people are forced to perform in an environment that is so stressful it prevents their natural skills and talents from being expressed, therefore hindering productivity and efficiency.

Here is the crucial point - human values and qualities are making a comeback! At the end of the day they are the only anchors of sanity that we humans have in rapidly changing times.

If we can associate values and qualities with our place of employment we then feel it is home for us and our contribution will be optimized which will show in performance, productivity, and general happiness.

How will your organization face this issue of integrity? Will you have the long-term vision to understand that this is a crucial necessity that cannot be avoided or will you ignore the obvious signs that are now appearing throughout the corporate world?