Integrity... Should It Matter?
In our fast paced work culture, manned by technology savvy generation in a globally competitive environment, quality and productivity became the battle cry of corporations to stay in business. Though this is not necessarily bad, an equally important ingredient to succeed is seemingly taking the back seat. Knowledge and Skill--- two competencies, through the years, were given much emphasis by the corporate world. As long as the job is done, the sales target is met, attitude, character and habits of employees became secondary in importance. When evaluating employees for promotion, leaders are at times in dilemma to choose between a technically competent guy with a not so good character and a trustworthy candidate but still lacking in skill. When the demand to fill the office is immediate, can a business unit afford to wait? Which choice is more expensive? The investment cost to train a trustworthy guy or the losses that may result from character flaw? We know that skills and knowledge deficiency can be addressed by a training program, is there an organizational intervention that can address character problem? Attitude and character is part and parcel of "integrity". But what is integrity? Should it be a factor in a person's effectiveness and development? Should it matter in an organization? Integrity, according to Richard Dortch "involves everything about the wholeness of our inner person, our heart, mind and will. Integrity simply means singleness: Singleness of our purpose, singleness of our will, singleness of our hearts. There is no dividing of the truth that splits the wholeness of what we are about". Mr. Dortch further explained that the prevailing duplicity in a person's professional and private life is a manifestation of an eroding integrity. Values are supposedly consistent regardless of time, place, culture and environment. The force that restrains us from doing certain activities when our superiors are around should also be present even when they are not. Similarly, the restraint to do certain actions in the presence of our family should also be felt when we are alone. Integrity In Business Context In business context, integrity is "investing your money to where your mouth is"--
The product can live to its promise(s) to end users, clients, customers and business partners. One of the top and well known companies in Asia is SM Prime, the Philippine's number one company managing shopping malls and retail shops. INTEGRITY is part of its corporate mantra. Ms. Teresita Sy-Coson, President of SM Mart Inc. and Chair of Banco De Oro, shared the 14 principles of her father. In her speech in a series of Taipan fora sponsored by the Federation of Filipino Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industry Inc. (FFCCCII), Ms. Sy-Coson said "the second principle, is about integrity...our father taught us to be fair, credible, trustworthy and to put a lot of weight in commitments and responsibilities". Integrity In Leadership "Leadership by example" is still one of the best approaches in leading the human capital. The story below often used to coach can best illustrate this point. This is a story of Mahatma Gandhi counseling a child for removing a bad habit. A lady reached Mahatma Gandhi with her 10 yr. old son. She told Gandhi, " Sir, my son has a bad habit of eating a lot of jaggery ( a special kind of Indian sweets ). I have been telling him to reduce eating jaggery but he does not listen to me. Mahatma ji, the whole nation listens to you and you are a revered personality. I am sure my son too will heed to your advice. Please tell him not to eat too much of jaggery." Mahatma Gandhi thought for a while and asked the lady to bring her son again after a week. After a week , the lady again took her son to Mahatma. Mahatma Gandhi put his hand on the head of the boy and told him, "My dear child, don't eat jaggery too much. It can be harmful". The conversation ended. The bewildered lady asked the Mahatma, "Sir, this was simple. You could have told him the same thing last week itself !! Why you made us come again after a week ?" Mahatma told the lady," I myself used to take jaggery till last week. I needed a weeks' time to quit eating jaggery so that I could counsel your son with conviction". The lady bowed in reverence to Mahatma Gandhi and took leave of him. Integrity In Failure Management Integrity is the strength of character to admit failure regardless of what is at stake. As Samuel Goldwyn, movie producer, said, "I don't want any yes-men around me. I want everybody around me to tell me the truth, even if it costs them their jobs." When our means to live is at stake, our tendency is to keep silent--either to cover for our own mistake or tolerate the deviations and misdeeds of peers in the workplace. Personal survival is more important than the truth, silence is misconstrued as innocence. In most cases, people remained silent for fear that his/her own "skeletons" will be revealed, or because of "peer pressure". In some cases, the reason for silence is "situational ethics". Is Integrity Important? An organization is built in integrity. An individual with flawed character will not last in good organizations. Likewise, good people will not stay for long in bad organizations. An excerpt from the article written by Lala Rimando entitled "When Executives Misbehave"in Newsbreak published on August 2, 2004 will prove this point. Ms. Rimando wrote: "I can't take it anymore," Mike, a thirtyish company vice-president, told Newsbreak. For the past years, his boss has been paying off a government official to avoid taxes. The legally mandated amount would have cost them three times more than what they are paying the official. Mike, bothered by his conscience, is leaving that company next month. "Cancer cells." That's how Eduardo Roberto, marketing professor at the Asian Institute of Management and fellow of the Social Weather Stations, describes the likes of Mike's boss. Roberto is the principal researcher of a study entitled "CEO Perceptions and Attitudes Toward Corporate Misconduct." The results show that the majority of the 96 chief executive officers (CEOs) and top management officials surveyed considered what was "wrong" in shades of gray, not in black and white terms. These executives are members of the AIM Alumni Association, American Chamber of Commerce, Financial Executives Association, Management Association of the Philippines, and Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry. "They are the bad cells that contaminate the good cells until the whole body is too sick," Roberto said during the presentation of the study results... When CEOs distort the meaning of wrong and these cascades down the line, the excellent and honest employees like Mike leave. But more usually, employees tend to adopt the behavior of their superiors. The cultural rejection of whistle blowing is strong among most senior executives, the study shows. Since executives twist the meaning of wrong to protect their own interests, Roberto said they might be inclined to do the same for their employees who misbehave. In fact, 57 percent of the respondents say it is acceptable to keep quiet about the misconduct of others. Corporate misconduct can also be deodorized through corporate philanthropy. The practice of giving and receiving favors is well entrenched in our culture, Roberto said. In fact, donating to earn "political points" or condoning a wrongdoing is sometimes equated with giving favors?". Our ability to lead is eroded when integrity is damaged. Our credibility to impose discipline and implement corporate values will be put in question. Character and attitude problems slows down an organization. Time and resources are wasted in the hiring and training of new employees brought by integrity related turnover. Time is also consumed in attending to administrative cases brought by employee dishonesty. Lack of integrity in leadership will lose its ability to set an example and lead. Lack of integrity in the organization will lose its ability to correct itself, therefore, loosing good employees either by resignation or conformation to the corrupt culture. Alexander Solzehnitsyn, a novelist, hit the nail when he said: In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers...we are ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations. Integrity... should it matter? Severo Santos, also known as "Sonnie", is a Human Resource Manager, Trainer, Volunteer Worker and Forum Moderator. He has authored several articles and in the process of completing a book on Spiritual Intelligence.
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Do the People in Your Organisation Dress For Success?
What really amazes me, with all the personal and professional development seminars people attend, from executives in corporate world, business owners and employees alike, very little investment has been made into the way they look ... personal image.
Innovation Management ? how does the user benefit?
Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.
Five Essential Hiring Practices
Recruiting and hiring are often done in haste, leaving the company to repent in the long run. Today, there's a reason to be concerned about negligent hiring. Negligent hiring means you and your company can be sued if one of your hires injures other employees, especially if you could have foreseen a problem but did not do a thorough check of the new employee before hiring.
Spirits in the Corporate Boardroom.......Oh, sure......
However, then came the 9/11disasters which shook up the United States and impacted on the whole world. While the world must now face the real issue of terrorism, perhaps something positive can come out of the trauma. I hear, between the lines, that it's not 'business as usual' anymore. There was corporate karma hiding behind 'success stories'. This started to come to light with scandals and more failures. The economy faltered as we all know.
Profits and Business Success - 5 Profit Traps to Watch Out For
The old saying 'You have to spend money to make money' can be a dangerous one. Every business has it's costs, but not every business owner takes the time to distinguish between what is an essential expense, and what is a 'nice to have' expense.
The Walmart Cult
The Cult
Ten Problem Solving Techniques
Do you ever need to find some good ideas, or come up with a solution for a persistent problem? Learn some simple problem solving techniques, and start applying them. Choose a few of the methods below, and get in the habit of using them in your personal life and your business.
Growing Profits is Easy!
Everyone involved in running a business from the smallest start-up to a major corporate dreams about how to achieve sustained profitable growth.
I'm a great believer that business is simple - it's only us human beings that make it complex. If you simplify business, and that is best done in my experience by "getting up in the helicopter" and looking at the big picture, it is remarkable how much you can see!
OJT - On The Job Training
Introduction
How to Manage Your People Well: Tips for Managers of Training
As a training manager, there are two important aspects to managing your people well: hiring, supervising, and motivating (managing with your people) and building up corporate support for your department (managing for your people). Unfortunately, training is not well understood by some executives, and its benefits can be hard to assess. Even a good training manager's department risks cuts by cost-conscious administrators convinced that training is an unnecessary expense. In The Secret of My Success, a cinematic fairy tale about life in corporate America, Michael J. Fox gets scolded his first day on the job for speaking to a senior executive: "Never consort with a suit unless the suit consorts with you first." As a training manager, however, you had better be prepared to consort with "the suits" from Day One. Managing for your people is a pro-active strategy that constantly demands selling your department's services and widening the base of organizational support for the training function.
Time for Change - Clearing the First Hurdle
"Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it."
Hiring for Success
Hiring someone new to work in your business is one of the most critical decisions a business owner makes, although it is not always given the justice it deserves. If a position is vacant, or additional staff are needed, recruitment decisions are often driven by the pressure to get someone in quickly, rather than waiting for the best person to fill the job. Lack of proper and systematic recruitment process can also result in a high cost to the business.
10 Ways To Maintain Profits In A Slow Economy
1. Sell more back end products to your existing customer base. You already created rapport, trust and proved your credibility to them.
Why Good Enough... Isnt
About a year ago, I had an opportunity to have dinner with the CEO of an engineering startup company in Pennsylvania. As we discussed engineering design matters over Chinese food, he took a few moments to talk about his business philosophy. "As far as I'm concerned," he told me, "if a product is good enough, then it's perfect." He explained that in his view, product improvements should only be performed with the specific goal of increasing sales. "Anything else," he said, "provides no benefit to the company. It's just over-engineering."
The Top 10 Things They Don?t Teach You In Business School
Here are 10 subjects that academia should be teaching their students in business school:
The Four Key Steps In Hiring And Keeping Top People
"When you hire the best, the rest is easy!" We have heard this phrase many times, but how do we put this concept into action? We know that hiring the best people is vital to the success of your business, especially for fast growing businesses. And certainly, your customers have high service expectations. So?how do you hire and keep top people? Let's start from the beginning.
Forecasting Support Costs
Did you know that maintenance accounts for 50% to 80% of the overall product cost? Well, it does! And while most project managers are fairly good at sizing new product features, many are terrible at estimating the effort required to support a product once it becomes generally available. As a result, maintenance projects are inadequately staffed, companies can't respond to customer requests in a timely manner, and products never reach payback.
Jack Welch--Success Is Getting Back Up on the Horse
A few months ago I had the opportunity to spend a few minutes with Jack Welch, past CEO of GE. A fantastic opportunity.
Managers Who Spend PR $$ Wisely
If you are a department, division or subsidiary manager, your budget is a precious possession whether you work for a business, a non-profit or an association. So why stand by while your public relations team spends too much time and treasure on tactics like press releases, column mentions and brochures? Especially when you could be using an aggressive PR blueprint to persuade your most important outside audiences to your way of thinking, then move them to take actions that lead to your success?
Parenting Your Employees to Better Performance
Have you ever worked for someone who was such a micro-manager that it drove you crazy? And have you ever worked for someone who was so hands-off that you felt like a lone warrior on the battlefield? These are examples of you working for leaders who did not adapt their style based on the employee's needs. I would venture to guess that you were not entirely motivated to put out your very best effort every time when you were feeling such frustrations.
|
