Strength of the righteous: integrity in the workplace

April 2020  |  FEATURE  |  LABOUR & EMPLOYMENT

Financier Worldwide Magazine

April 2020 Issue

Integrity is a word that should ideally reside within everyone’s emotional vocabulary. In a workplace environment in particular, integrity is certainly a desirable quality, with effective interaction between staff members dependent on a high standard of professional behaviour.

Beyond the obvious, what then should we understand integrity in the workplace to mean? According to Ideas for Leaders, “the true measure of integrity in a firm is not comforting slogans on the home page of the company website, but how employees feel about whether top management, through its actions and behaviours, is living up to the promise. A culture of integrity exists when employees perceive top managers as trustworthy and ethical”.

According to the 2019 Trust Index Employee Survey (TIES) – conducted annually by the Great Place to Work Institute (GPTWI) to measure companies’ level of integrity – integrity in the workplace is when “management’s actions match its words”, and “management is honest and ethical in its business practices”.

That said, achieving such a culture can be very much a hit and miss affair. “Most business leaders today believe that their programmes are sufficient,” says Patricia J. Harned, chief executive of the Ethics & Compliance Initiative (ECI). “Unfortunately, our research has shown that most organisations have not done enough to truly ensure integrity in their operations. Every effort, however, that a company undertakes makes a difference.”

Tone at the top

Articulating its purpose so that an atmosphere of honest and ethical behaviour is engendered within the workplace should be high on the corporate agenda, with ‘tone at the top’ a key guiding principle.

“Chief executives need to know how to read their companies’ emotional tone,” believes Kenneth Kurtzman, managing director and partner at the Boston Consulting Group. “They need to engage in behaviours that build trust, including leading-by-listening, building bridges, showing compassion and caring, demonstrating their own commitment to the organisation, and giving employees the authority to do their job while inspiring them to do their best work.”

In the view of Betsy Atkins, chairman of the board at GlobalLogic, there is simply no substitute for chief executive leadership in creating a company culture of integrity. “A board that supports the chief executive in building a company culture of integrity, transparency and collaboration will be supporting a successful company. Share your successes and your failures and look to everyone to help build a better company.

“By including everyone, you create the illusive ‘we’ that is the essence of company culture,” she continues. “Transparency leads to a company culture that creates an outcome because the chief executive creates a bigger purpose for the organisation than just making money or reaching quarterly numbers.”

Reaping the benefits

In a business world often perceived as decidedly lacking in integrity, especially the higher up the corporate food chain you go, a company that can build and maintain a culture of transparency, ownership and accountability will reap many benefits.

According to analysis by Training Industry, a commitment to integrity means a company: (i) upholds one version of the truth, so everyone knows where he or she stands and what is necessary for success; (ii) becomes committed to transparency and believes everyone has a voice and ideas to help create success; (iii) cultivates a good reputation with customers, and, in turn, customers become loyal; (iv) ensures everyone understands organisational goals, operates in line with expectations and holds each other accountable to those standards; and (v) makes decisions without taking shortcuts, and employees conduct themselves in an ethical and accountable manner.

“The bottom line is that integrity, as defined by adherence to a clear statement of purpose, vision and values, is a key ingredient for successful long-term business strategy,” states Training Industry. “It impacts everything from recruiting and employee retention to customer relationships, brand and reputation, and, ultimately, the bottom line.”

True integrity

While integrity in the workplace is guided to a large extent by tone at the top, the acid test is the opinion of its employees. They are the final arbiters as to whether a true culture of integrity has been instilled or whether it amounts to little more than lip service.

“When employees feel that they are being heard and when they know that their concerns are being noted, they will be more engaged, productive and innovative,” concludes Ms Atkins. “Leaders can instil this throughout the management chain and be able to build a stronger, more cohesive culture.”

© Financier Worldwide

BY

Fraser Tennant