According to a recent study conducted by the global consulting firm, EY, 97% of respondents reported that it is important for companies to act with integrity. Many companies tout integrity as a core principle of their organizations in an attempt to reassure customers, employees, and the wider public that their organization “plays by the rules.” By some estimates, integrity is ranked as one of the most cited corporate core values, with over 80% of companies listing integrity as a core value.
But simply including integrity on your list of core values and mounting that list on a plaque on a wall (as many companies do) won’t positively influence your culture unless your core values are fully embraced and lived by employees each and every day. After all, Enron was once the darling of corporate America and a supposedly stellar business success story—until news broke that Enron had engaged in what would turn out to be one of the biggest accounting scandals in U.S. history.
Here’s why listing “integrity” as a core value and getting employees to live with integrity in the workplace can pose a challenge—even for companies with the best of intentions.
A few years ago, the CEO and chairperson of a large financial institution were caught with their hands in the proverbial cookie jar, engaged in what could be described, at best, as questionable behavior. When the media asked the chairperson if what she and the CEO had done was aligned with the company’s core value of integrity, the chairperson replied, “Integrity means different things to different people.”
Subscribe to the Daily newsletter.Fast Company’s trending stories delivered to you every day
Privacy Policy
|
Fast Company Newsletters
The media and the public were outraged by the response. But, y’know what? The chairperson was right! Integrity does mean different things to different people when it comes to business practices.
Here are three steps to take if you want to build a company where everyone understands exactly what integrity means to the organization and exactly how to demonstrate integrity in the workplace.
1. Define what integrity means for your company
An organization’s perspective on the topic of integrity most often comes from the leadership of that organization, and their various versions of integrity are often reflected in corporate policies.
For instance, ice cream chain Ben and Jerry’s version of integrity is reflected in their policy to only use fair trade–certified ingredients, ensuring that farmers along their supply chain are paid a fair price for their products. Chipmakers like Intel demonstrate their version of integrity by avoiding using “conflict minerals” that are mined under conditions that could be considered to be abuses of human rights. The Body Shop demonstrates its version of integrity by committing to never testing its products on animals.
Some companies whose very business models, products, services, or waste may be viewed by others as causing harm to the communities in which they operate try to demonstrate integrity by engaging in acts of restitution. For instance, timber company Hampton Lumber plants three trees for every tree it harvests.
Outdoor clothing company Patagonia, known not only for the quality of its products, but also for its efforts to minimize damage to the environment, donates 1% of revenue to environmental groups. (Despite these actions, some critics insist that the acts of restitution pale in comparison to the destruction caused by the companies and even accuse these companies of “greenwashing”—a deceptive practice designed to paint organizations as being more environmentally conscious than they are.)
advertisement
But, demonstrating “boardroom integrity” through corporate policies isn’t enough to qualify a company as being one that acts with integrity. Companies also need to demonstrate integrity at the grassroots level. It makes little sense to list “integrity” as a company core value unless that commitment to integrity permeates every corner of the organization on an individual, team or departmental level.
2. Clarify what integrity means for your employees
So, since integrity may mean different things to different people, how can a company’s employees truly commit to integrity as a core value? There’s no easy answer to that question, but one way to stay within the boundaries of ethical behavior is to use “the social media test” where you instruct your employees to ask themselves, “would I be comfortable if this behavior, action, or decision were to be reported on social media (or in the newspaper) for everyone to see?” If the answer is “no” to this litmus test, then deep down in their hearts, they probably recognize that whatever they are considering probably isn’t aligned with the principle of integrity.
Another way to clarify to your employees how to act with integrity in the workplace is to articulate clear behavioral expectations expressed not in abstract concepts but in clear, crisp, and concise language, using what I refer to as the “even if” principle to make it crystal clear that your organization values integrity over the potential short-term benefits of acting unethically. For instance, members of your organization’s sales department might be told: “Integrity means never misrepresenting a product to close a deal, even if it means losing a sale.”
Consultants that provide services on an hourly rate to clients might be instructed to never overestimate or bill clients for time not spent on the account—even if that means not hitting monthly billing targets. Quality control managers at a company that manufacture parts may be told in no uncertain terms to never ship faulty products—even if a customer might never notice the defects.
3. Take Accountability Seriously
Next, it’s important to hold employees (especially leadership) accountable for these standards.
One way to hold people accountable is through the use of independent oversight—such as an empowered board of directors, ethics committees, or external auditors. To be effective, these bodies must have the authority to investigate ethical concerns, insist on transparency, reward employees for acting with integrity, and apply consequences to those who violate their company’s standards for acting with integrity. Most importantly, these bodies must not be influenced by internal politics and should not be able to be fired on the whims of the leadership team who they are holding accountable. Ideally, these oversight bodies should be proactive, with audits that identify potential conflicts early enough to prevent ethical mischief.
Another way to hold leaders accountable is to create a culture where employees at all levels feel safe reporting ethical concerns without fear of reprisal. Anonymous reporting and whistleblowing channels can help identify problems that leadership might otherwise miss—or worse, knowingly condone.
The desire to operate a company that acts with integrity is a noble one—but, as we have seen, one that is fraught with challenges—particularly because acting with integrity means different things to different people. No wonder research shows that just 23% of U.S. employees strongly agree that they can apply their organization’s values to their work every day!
If you want your organization to be one in which employees can apply integrity to their work every day, follow the three steps above. Define what living with integrity means for your organization, drill down to the employee level and remove any ambiguity about how employees can live with integrity, and hold everyone in your organization (especially the leadership team) accountable for living with integrity. Once you’ve done this, you will be in a much better position to lead with integrity, maintain your reputation in the marketplace, and navigate complex ethical challenges.