Handout for

Integrity in the Workplace—If Not Now, When?

A Wisdom at Work presentation, August 24, 2007

Oliver W. Markley, Ph.D.

Some Quotable Observations

“When one species attains a position of dominance over all the other species in the ecology of its planet, if it is both egocentrically greedy, and has a powerful set of technologies through which to amplify the expression of that greed, then unless that dominant species can find a way to limit or to transform itself and its greed-based systems into something more wholesome, it will foul its planetary nest as surely as the night follows the day ... perhaps even to its own extinction.”

“The Central Challenge of Humanity,” from “The Fourth Wave: A Normative

Forecast for the Future of ‘Spaceship Earth',” by Oliver Markley

As recently stated in the website of Congressman James E. Clyborn, Chair of the new Congressional “Clean House Task Force”:

  1. "We must restore the integrity of the House. Integrity, basically defined, is when words and deeds do not part."
  2. "We must transcend politics as usual in Washington and bring transparency to the process of government".
  3. "We must enact legislation to rein in Washington money and fully empower all Americans. The system is simply not working and we must take action now to fix it."

http://clyburn.house.gov/pressroom-statements-detail.cfm?id=5 ; emphasis added

All of the five characteristics that the psychiatric profession now uses to define a psychopathic person are characteristic of companies for whom “whether you obey the law or not is a matter of whether it is a cost-effective business decision. If the chance of getting caught and the penalty are less than it costs to comply, people think of it as being just a business decision.”

The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power, by Joel Bakan

“Behavioral Integrity” by management—defined as being perceived by employees as when your words and deeds match each other--has been shown to correlate with profitability. In a pioneering study by Tony Simons, a professor at the Cornell University 's School of Hotel Administration, the improvement of only a 1/8 th of a point in a five point scale of the behavioral integrity score of Quality Inn managers led to a boost in hotel profits of as much as 2.5% of revenues. “For an average full-service hotel, that would be more than $250,000 per year, straight to the bottom line,” said Simons.

The “4-Way Test” of Rotary International

This 24-word test is used world-wide as an ethical guide for employees to follow in their business and professional lives involving sales, production, advertising, and all relations with dealers and customers:

In the things we think, say or do:

•  Is it the TRUTH?

•  Is it FAIR to all concerned?

•  Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?

•  Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?"

To what degree would the 4-Way Test increase organizational wisdom, effectiveness and profitability if both you and others in your place of work were to use it as an ethical guide?”


Three questions to help assess the risk of working to improve integrity at work

Courtesy of Professor Robert Jensen, University of Texas at Austin

  1. What are the risks that you would have to take [or maybe have already started to take] to actively work to increase the level of integrity in your personal and work life in ways that are both self-critical and challenge powerful people and institutions? What risks would you have to take to do that?
  2.  What risks will you take if you don't do that type of work for integrity?
  3.  If you decided to take the risks inherent in Question 1, what will you need in order to survive and thrive as a professional and as a person: What will you need from yourself? What will you need from other people? And what will you need from the institutions and organizations in your life, both public and private?

(You might note that people in positions of privilege tend to exaggerate the risks in Question One and under-estimate the risks in Questions Two. What would the path of wisdom at work involve?)

People I respect in my workplace as Opinion Leaders, Cultural Creatives and/or Edgewalkers

(please fill in at your convenience):

 

Something specific I might do now to increase the level of integrity at work, both by my self and with others (please fill in at your convenience) :

 

 

References

Bakan, Joel, The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power (2004); the movie version can be downloaded at www. worldfilm.about.com/b/a/257188.htm .

Korten, David, When Corporations Rule the World (1995).

_______, The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community (2006).

Maister, David, Practice What You Preach: What Managers Must Do to Create a HighAchievement Culture (2001)

McTaggart, Lynne , The Intention Experiment: Using Your Thoughts to Change Your Life and the World (2007).

Markley, Oliver, “The Fourth Wave: A Normative Forecast for the Future of ‘Spaceship Earth',” (1994), posted at http://www.inwardboundvisioning.com/Docs/SpaceShipEarth.htm .

______, “Getting Real about Integrity,” a booklet of resource materials for workshops of The Integrity Project, available upon request (2007), and posted at www.inwardboundvisioning.com/IntegrityBooklet.htm .

Maverick Center , website: http://www.maverickcenter.com/ .

Neal, Judi, Edgewalkers: People and Organizations That Take Risks, Build Bridges , and Break New Ground (2006); website: www.edgewalker.org .

PEERS (Public Education and Empowerment Resource Service, http://www.peerservice.org/ ), online publishers of:

http://www.WantToKnow.info - Revealing major cover-ups and working together for a brighter future
http://www.inspiringcommunity.org - Building a Global Community for All
http://www.weboflove.org - Strengthening the Web of Love that interconnects us all http://www.transformationteam.net - Conscious community in action .

Ray, Paul and Sherry Anderson, The Cultural Creatives: How Fifty Million People are Changing the World (2001). Website: www. culturalcreatives . org / .

Rotary International, “The Four Way Test,” posted at http://www.rotary.org/aboutrotary/4way.html .

Simons, Tony, “ The High Cost of Lost Trust: When Employees Doubt a Manager's Integrity, the Problem Can Show up on the Bottom Line,” Harvard Business Review, Sep 1, 2002;

_______, " Behavioral Integrity: The Perceived Alignment Between Managers' Words and Deeds as a

Research Focus,” Organization Science , Vol. 13, No. 1, January-February 2002, pp. 18-35, DOI: 10.1287/orsc.13.1.18.543; posted at http://people.cornell.edu/pages/tls11/OS_BI_theory.pdf ;

______, “Executive Summary: The Integrity Dividend,” posted at http://people.cornell.edu/pages/tls11/Executive%20Summary%20of%20Behavioral%20Integrity.pdf .

Wilber, Ken, The Integral Operating System, Version 1.0 (2005). Website: www.Integralinstitute.org .