Content area
Full text
What went wrong at Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, AIG, Marsh, Health South and the large number of other companies that have been caught up in recent business ethics scandals? Looking at each of these cases, you invariably find one thing in common-the people involved forgot who they were, evaded their responsibilities and got caught up in the lust for accumulation of either money, power, or possessions. Another way to look at the situation is to say that those who got caught in the ethical scandals failed to maintain their integrity. Corporate executives who are tempted to falsify earnings to gain a bonus or meet financial expectations are like agents who are tempted by a large commission to recommend a product that isn't in the best interest of the client. They suffer from what we can call a moral schizophrenia wherein they are pulled in two directions: one being the accumulation of wealth and the other being the devotion to carry out their professional mission. I assert that the person of integrity is one who gets such temptations for wealth in line with his or her basic responsibilities.
Integrity is not usually characterized in that way. Often, integrity is equated to honesty and trustworthiness. Furthermore, integrity appears as a principle in most codes of ethics governing the financial services professions. For example, the Society of FSP code of ethics and the Certified Financial Planner's code of ethics both primarily describe integrity as involving "honesty and trust." But there is another element in die description that is found in both codes. They share the sentiment expressed in die Society's code that says, "A professionals honesty and candor should not be subordinate to personal gain or advantage."
This notion of subordination is crucial in a fuller understanding of integrity. Certainly individuals at Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, AIG, Marsh and other companies subordinated honesty and candor to personal gain or advantage and used others for their own advantage. This subordination of their responsibilities to personal advantage results in the loss of integrity. Put another way, having integrity allows the proper ordering of one's goals and ends so that responsibilities are not subordinated to accumulative desires.
The root meaning of the word "integrity" has to do with wholeness and integration. Webster's...