Does Integrity Matter?: The Personal Choice of Connection

Does integrity matter? Life often suggests otherwise. Staying honest is difficult when competing against those who cheat, lie, or manipulate to get ahead. Unethical behavior often yields quick wealth and career advancement because system incentives reward it. In some cases it is actively rewarded. 

(Illustrative Only)
Knowledge and
insight come from 
self reflection. 
Have you defined
what your values are
and what you will stand for?

While some successful people maintain high integrity, they acknowledge it is a challenging path. Society enables bad behavior by accepting shallow promises from leaders whose actions contradict their words. When institutions fail to enforce ethical standards, integrity becomes a personal choice—one that offers few external rewards but allows you to stand firm in your values.

Hopefully your now alone in your values.....

It is up to all of us to demand integrity across our leadership, organizations, and communities. When ethical standards erode and shared norms dissolve, society begins to fracture. A breakdown in shared values weakens interpersonal connections and leads to corruption, institutional misuse, and division.

Ultimately, maintaining integrity requires both collective accountability and individual commitment to an internal moral compass, regardless of the scale of the decision. In our transactional theory as integrity and shared values decline so does the connections and optimal performance of society. Economics is only one marker but it is based in choice. 

Integrity Matters

• The paper addresses the theoretical shortcomings of how integrity is defined and studied within organizational leadership research by grounding the construct in moral philosophy.

• The author differentiates personal integrity from moral integrity, highlighting that moral integrity requires coherence between an individual's commitments and socially-shared moral standards.

• The analysis distinguishes integrity from related concepts such as virtue, character, and honesty, noting that it represents a broader integration of a person's commitments and actions.

• Integrity is explored through key dimensions including consistency across different contexts, stability over time, coherence between stated values and behaviors, and permanence across varying social roles.

• The article concludes by assessing the concept of organizational integrity and offering practical suggestions for how researchers and practitioners can better operationalize the integrity construct.

Dunn, C. P. (2009). Integrity matters. International Journal of Leadership Studies, 5(2), 102-125. https://www.regent.edu/journal/international-journal-of-leadership-studies/integrity-matters/