The Servant of the People: on the power of integrity in politics and government (original) (raw)
Related papers
Integrity and Integrity Management in Public Life
2017
1. Integrity in public life is an essential component in establishing trust between citizens and their governments. However, over recent decades there has been increasing concern worldwide that standards of integrity are in decline. In part, that concern reflects a parallel focus on corruption as a core threat to good governance. The two concepts-corruption and integrity-are thus often understood as two sides of the same coin, an increase in one leading to a decline in the other. 2. In practice, much of the attention devoted to integrity has been largely implicit: rather than exploring in depth what should be understood by integrity in public life, and how to achieve it, researchers, activists and policy-makers have too often seemed to assume that integrity will result from the elimination of corruption. Their focus has therefore overwhelmingly been on tackling corruption, rather than on promoting integrity. 3. To focus primarily on corruption inevitably places emphasis on the negative behaviours we are seeking to prevent as opposed to the positive behaviours we wish to encourage. Integrity means more than just 'not corrupt', and involves doing the right thing in the right way. 4. Lack of clarity about what integrity is has hindered attempts to promote it. In particular, the relationship between personal integrity and role-based integrity, as well as between integrity at the individual or at the institutional level, has resulted in confusion about the how the concept can be translated into practical action. 5. Integrity thus entails complex relationships with other dimensions, and can be analysed from various perspectives. For the purpose of developing an approach to integrity management (that is, the formal framework to ensure ethical behaviour by public officials), the report distinguishes core characteristics of personal and political integrity. The former entails: wholeness (thinking beyond just the personal); action that is consistent with principles (doing the right things); morality (doing things for the right reasons); and process (doing things in the right way). The latter encompasses: normative justice; openness and transparency; citizen engagement; and impartial authorities. 6. Predominant anti-corruption approaches respond to a logic that does not sit easily with the promotion of integrity. The reason is that policies designed to combat corruption are usually developed as a reaction or response to particular scandals, or else are designed to prevent specific behaviours. They are driven by an attempt to address the visible expression of corruption, focusing primarily on institutional configurations or regulatory frameworks, rather than the promotion of a pro-integrity mind-set amongst public officials. 7. The report therefore addresses the issue of integrity management, focusing on what the OECD (2009) has referred to as an implementation deficit, as well as on the relationship between compliance-based and values-based approaches to ensuring high standards in public administration. The reports pays particular attention to the issues of culture and leadership in promoting appropriate models of integrity. 8. The report is informed by fieldwork that was undertaken in Bolivia and Rwanda, as well as by desk-based research on relevant primary and secondary sources.
Integrity: its causes and cures
Legal Ethics and Human Dignity
Integrity is a good thing, isn't it? In ordinary parlance, we sometimes use it as a near synonym for honesty, but the word means much more than honesty alone. It means wholeness or unity of person, an inner consistency between deed and principle. "Integrity" shares etymology with other unity-words-integer, integral, integrate, integration. All derive from the Latin integrare, to make whole. And the person of integrity is the person whose conduct and principles operate in happy harmony. Our psyches always seek that happy harmony. When our conduct and principles clash with each other, the result, social psychology teaches us, is cognitive dissonance. And dissonance theory hypothesizes that one of our fundamental psychic mechanisms is the drive to reduce dissonance. You can reduce dissonance between conduct and principles in two
Research on Integrity: A Review and Assessment
Journal of Management Information and Decision Sciences, 2021
The study of ethics and integrity are current issues that deserve scientific attention, the concept and development of integrity models and research studies in their own right. The concept of integrity had been vague as more research is incorporating integrity into their models of research. Throughout the years, improved models of integrity are useful for governments, corporations and individuals for them to make improved decision making. The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners stated that global fraud losses are at the levels of trillions of dollars a year. This could be prevented if the people in society act with higher levels of ethic and integrity. The purpose of this paper was to report the results of a systematically conducted literature review of studies related to integrity. The objective of this paper was to explore the development of integrity through literature and content review. This includes examining concepts that are considered part of integrity and the approach used towards assessing or integrating integrity in these studies. This study employed a structured review process that critically examined sources from various electronic databases. Electronic databases that only utilised strict content, scientific quality indicators and are peer-reviewed journals articles are the ones selected. Another selection criterion was that the selected article has high levels of citations. Most of the studies had associated integrity with positive ethical values practised such as leadership, honesty, and sincerity while including these values in their research models. The review briefly discusses the associated concepts of integrity and the underlying values that are connected with the use of the term integrity. The results of past studies related to integrity indicated that there are strong positive characteristics and positive values that are associated with the term integrity.
The concept of integrity is essential to our understanding of good governance, which inevitably defines a smooth and well functioning state institution. This paper pursues a three-fold objective. First, it will try to provide a coherent working definition of the concept of integrity and, thus, distinguish it from other ideas that it is so often associated. Second, it will explore the relevance of the concept to the role of the ombudsman as part of the broader institutional paraphernalia for securing good governance. Ombudsmen, as the paper will show, are critical to ensuring that leaders and officials act with integrity at all time. However, they can only do so if they themselves live up to the highest standards of integrity. Building on this point, the paper will, lastly, evaluate various options by which the ombudsman office could secure itself and in turn serve as an effective instrument for advancing integrity and good governance.
Whither Integrity I: Recent Faces of Integrity 1
Philosophy Compass, 2013
Despite the fact that most of us value integrity, and despite the fact that we readily understand one another when we talk and argue about it, integrity remains elusive to understand. Considerable scholarly attention has left troubling disagreement on fundamental issues: Is integrity in fact a virtue? If it is, what is it a virtue of? Why exactly should we value integrity? What is the appropriate way to have concern for one's own integrity? Is having integrity compatible with having significant moral flaws? After an overview of common 'data points' or platitudes concerning integrity, this article outlines six distinct views of integrity that have been defended and draws attention to problems each has accommodating these data points. 1. Some Data Points Given the different senses of integrity in common usage, and given numerous divergent conceptions of integrity in the literature, it will be useful to set out some data points in
Integrity, ethics and corruption
During the last decades, corruption, a “social illness” has been spread to a number of countries all over the globe. Corruption is subversive of good governance, stable economic structures, stable legal systems and just and other structures because it replaces the normal rules which determine the outcomes of dealings between individuals, organisations, between organisations and the state and various commercial entities. It “undermines the fairness, stability and efficiency of a society and its ability to deliver sustainable development to its members” (Sampford,2006). The fighting and prevention of corruption is closely linked to installation of integrity, ethics, establishing the rule of law, consolidating security and building prosperity in our societies. A number of principles that characterise “good governance”, primarily the following: efficiency, transparency, accountability, avoidance of putting private interest ahead of public interest, loyalty, expediency and effectiveness. When we say integrity, it is as if we mentioned each of these principles. The word ‘integrity’ originates from the Latin word integritas and means indivisibility, stainlessness, honesty, reality, due diligence and other moral values of a person. Integrity of a civil servant and a state employee means that he/she has adequate knowledge and skills, acts ethically in accordance with the laws and morality and is not susceptible under the unethical and immoral (corruptive) pressure. Integrity of the institution refers to the method of work of the institution and its employees who work and act independently, impartially, transparently and fairly. By strengthening the integrity of both civil servants and institutions, the public confidence in the work of state authorities will be increased. One cannot talk about the integrity of the institution if there is no integrity of the individual, who knows and accepts that the interest of the institution should be above his/ her private interests (Komianos, 2010).
A conceptual framework of integrity
SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 2008
This article reports on the findings of a qualitative study in which the construction of integrity of some business leaders was explored. Data were gathered through ten in-depth interviews with six South African business leaders commended to be champions of integrity. A grounded-theory approach to the data analysis elicited five themes. These themes and their interrelatedness are discussed in this article and a conceptual framework of integrity is proposed. Integrity is conceptualised as a multifaceted and dynamic construct based on a moral foundation and inner drive that is managed by cognitive and affective processes manifesting various integrity-related behaviours.
The Implementation and Experience of Integrity Management in Public Administration
Academic and Applied Research in Military and Public, 2019
I know, there is no perfection on earth. To accept imperfection-in a certain sense, can bring us towards perfection-in spite of everything. It is the most to reach the maximum. János Pilinszky 2 To achieve integrity requires continuous attention, it is not a coincidence that integrity in Hungarian is often used together in one phrase with "development". If integrity is regarded identical with the perfection in the quotation above, it gets even more manifested that its realization or at least approaching it-needs continuous actions and studies. The study presents the appearance of integrity concept and the experience of the integrity management's implementation in Hungary.
Integrity: a systems theory classification
Journal of Management History, 2007
Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to provide a meaningful framework for the classification of the integrity trait in the moral context (ethics), offering an understandable conceptualization of a notion that although identified as central in the literature has is not been defined in a clear and conventional way. Design/methodology/approach-Grounding ideas on the person-situation historical debate, and drawing on the insights of Luhmann's General System Theory, this paper develops a multileveled framework that categorizes the view of integrity. Findings-The integrity framework presents three categories (levels) of integrity: personal integrity, moral integrity and organizational integrity (OI). This classification serves as a bridging mechanism when trying to link different academic areas (e.g. psychology and ethics) since it provides some agreement on the different meanings and perspectives of the concept of integrity present in the literature. Practical implications-Practical application of the framework is foreseen within the organizational context, where managers could use it for articulating some of the more intangible aspects that compose their organizational cultures, and which in turn, impact their employees' behavior. In addition, the framework is useful to detect possible/future conflicts of interests that may arise due to different personal (employees) and organizational (company) views of integrity. Originality/value-This paper alerts scholars and practitioners to the need of a sound classification of the concept of integrity, plus an agreement on its meaning, scope and uses. Consequently, it develops a multileveled framework to show an understandable conceptualization of the trait, paving the road for multidisciplinary research on the topic.
Co-constructing integrity: A conceptual framework
SA Journal of Industrial Psychology
Orientation: The use of an integrity framework can positively influence the impact senior management has on middle management’s experience of integrity and subsequently contribute towards creating a positive work environment and establishing healthy relationships between these two groups.Research purpose: The aim of this research is to obtain insights from psychology practitioners about the potential application of, and the value added by, a particular integrity framework within organisations.Motivation for the study: Establishing a positive work environment and organisational culture that upholds integrity and that is conducive to behaviour marked by integrity, requires investment into the development of leadership integrity. Utilising an integrity framework will enable psychology practitioners and organisational leadership to create an environment in which healthy relationships can be established between all stakeholders, in particular, between senior and middle managers, allowing...