Whither Integrity I: Recent Faces of Integrity 1 (original) (raw)

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.

Integrity: Principled Coherence, Virtue, or Both?

The Journal of Value Inquiry, 2004

Integrity can be divided into two general categories as outlined by Hayden Ramsay in Beyond Virtue: Integrity and Morality. Ramsay analyzes the work of Kant and Aquinas and suggests that they advocate two different senses of integrity. Kantian philosophy implies a formalist approach to integrity, in which we exercise our freedom by discovering and shaping our personality and identity. This approach would have us focus on two common aspects of integrity, identity formation and principled coherence. The formalist account is characterized by principled coherence, the ability of the individual to articulate and consistently follow principles of behavior that she deems appropriate for her identity formation. These principles display coherence between belief and behavior but the principles themselves may change as preferences, experiences, and behaviors constituent of identity formation emerge and shift. In contrast, an areteic account of integrity finds expression in the natural law theory of Thomas Aquinas. Integrity is teleologically oriented toward moral and spiritual fulfillment. The virtues are united in areteic integrity. In this model, integrity builds character and is built by character. It includes such virtues as honesty, sincerity, and courage.

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.

Does Integrity Require Moral Goodness?

Ratio, 2001

Most accounts of integrity agree that the person of integrity must have a relatively stable sense of who he is, what is important to him, and the ability to stand by what is most important to him in the face of pressure to do otherwise. But does integrity place any constraints on the kind of principles that the person of integrity stands for? In response to several recent accounts of integrity, I argue that it is not enough that a person stand for what he believes in, nor even that he is committed to and stands for what, in his best judgement, is morally right. In our web of moral concepts integrity is internally related to a host of virtues which exclude weakness of will and dogmatism, and presuppose trustworthiness. Integrity requires that the principles stood for must be those that a morally good, morally trustworthy agent would stand for, and that the agent himself is morally trustworthy.

Conceptualizing Personal and Institutional Integrity: The Comprehensive Integrity Framework

Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations, 2015

We present a conceptual and terminological system-what we term the 'Comprehensive Integrity Framework'-capable of applying to both personal and institutional integrity, and to different levels of institutions (including sub-institutions and institutional complexes). We distinguish between three sorts of integrity: consistency-integrity (whether the agent's acts accord with her claimed values); coherence-integrity (whether the agent's character and internal constitution accord with her claimed values), and; context-integrity (whether the agent's environment facilitates her living up to her claimed values). We then employ this conceptual system to explore similarities, differences and overlaps between personal and institutional integrity, drawing in particular on moral philosophic work on personal integrity (on the one hand) and 'integrity systems' and public administration approaches to institutional integrity (on the other).

The Legal Enforcement of Integrity

Talk of " integrity " is ubiquitous in law and legal discourse: Protecting the integrity of our political system has been cited as a basis for anti-corruption laws; preserving the integrity of the legal profession as a principle underlying the rules of lawyer ethics; ensuring integrity in policing and in the wider criminal justice system as a justification for excluding evidence obtained in violation of the Constitution; and protecting bodily integrity as a potential goal for the law of rape and sexual assault. This chapter examines what integrity means in each of these contexts, what these uses have in common, and whether thinking about these various rules and doctrines in terms of integrity rather than other moral concepts leads to any practical difference in outcome. It also asks what the examination of integrity in the law can tell us about the concept of integrity in other contexts.

Integrity and Impartial Morality

Dialogue, 2012

ABSTRACT: Among recent criticisms of impartial moral theories, especially in consequentialist and deontological forms, Bernard Williams’ integrity objection is perhaps the most tantalizing. This objection is a complaint—at once both general and deep—that impartial moral theories are systematically incapable of finding room for integrity in human life and character. Kantians have made forceful responses to this integrity objection and have moved on. Consequentialists have found the objection more trying. I offer reasons to think that consequentialists too can safely move on. These reasons suggest the relationship between integrity and impartiality is less antagonistic than often supposed.RÉSUMÉ : Parmi les récentes critiques des théories morales impartiales, notamment les critiques conséquentialiste et déontologique, l’objection d’intégrité de Bernard Williams est possiblement la plus attrayante. Cette objection—à la fois générale et profonde—reproche aux théories morales impartiales...