How Do We Achieve Corporate Integrity?

By Linda Fisher Thornton

To achieve corporate integrity, we must do a number of things well. We need to have a clear message about what taking responsibility for ethics means to us; clear expectations for what it looks like in our organization day-to-day; and a congruent system for managing for ethical performance.

There is a current ethics trend away from a “push” mentality when it comes to learning about ethics (making people do it) to a “pull” mentality (making it positive so that people will want to do it). Taking on a “pull mentality” involves creating a positive ethical environment, which includes:

Reaching beyond laws and regulations (they represent the punishment threshold, not ethical business)
Reaching for ethical values – respect, care, trust, doing good and avoiding harm

There are specific actions that we must take to develop a positive ethical culture where our ethics message and our day-to-day actions are clearly aligned. The 7 actions listed below are some of the most important ones to take on the journey to corporate integrity.

Companies With Corporate Integrity Develop:

An ethical leader’s mindset.
A multidimensional understanding of what ethical responsibility means in a global society.
An ethics message that we keep current as times change.
An awareness that profitability is not an ethical value and decisions about money must always be balanced with ethical values.
A well-informed leadership team that knows what leading ethically looks like in action.
A quick response to problems, and full accountability for ethical behavior.
A consistent and integrated performance system that rewards ethical behavior.