Question: What is the best approach if integrity in the workplace is compromised? I am preparing material to teach integrity in the workplace and one of the questions I have in my brown bag discussion is how one should respond if he/she thinks integrity is compromised. I would like to emphasize that integrity in the workplace can also be as simple as not honoring a contract or agreement with an employee with a justification that management has had a change of mind and direction; or it can be a case of reporting incomplete data to the boss so you make a good impression. What is your suggestion?
Answer: Someone with personal integrity wouldn't shortcut answers so reporting incomplete data wouldn't be an issue. Not honoring contracts or not honoring agreements, again, are all PERSONAL integrity issues.
There is NO corporate integrity since all decisions and all actions are carried out by people, ultimately it comes down to one person's decision to do the wrong thing consciously. If you work with someone like that and it goes against your integrity, then you are consciously allowing that other person's lack of integrity to be stronger than what you believe.
And you can't say that you don't have a choice. You always have a choice to do the right thing - unless your courage is less than your integrity.
ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: If you don't have the courage to speak up when you see something wrong, if you refuse to act or voice your concerns because you're afraid then you are allowing someone else's beliefs to dictate what you do. It means you don't have integrity of your own. Allowing unfulfilled agreements to go on means that you don't really stand for anything. That means you can't play the integrity card. Your actions would dictate your lack of it.
If you're afraid to voice your concerns on honesty, fairness, truth and respect then you really need to find a new line of work - something where "integrity" won't be an issue.
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2 comments:
I have just had this conversation with a new staff member. The challenge lies in the type of contract. Often the contract and service to customers can be at odds. It is then that we need to apply discretion to serve the customer rather than live by the policy or terms of the contract. This can be confusing at times because what is written in black and white has a a weight to it. It is important to remember that the needs of the human standing in front of you outweigh that writing. As manager I will defend a staff member who did right by a customer rather than said "I'm sorry the policy says I can't help you." That's real integrity.
Peter, great point. Policy is always developed by people which means people should be able to overrule policy to better serve people (customers). I agree that you should always applaud initiative over quoting policy. You can't improve the policy if you don't test it from time to time.
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