Like’reputation,’ ‘integrity’ is one of those words that business leaders and politicians use without considering what it means.
Rishi Sunak asserted that he will serve as an honest prime minister, presumably as a means of distinguishing himself from his naive Conservative predecessors.
The Financial Conduct Authority penalized Julius Baer International £18 million for “failing to conduct its business with integrity” just one month ago.
In these circumstances, the term ‘integrity’ is generally considered to refer to the quality of being transparent and honest while adhering to strong moral beliefs. And so it does.
But the term also refers to being solid, robust, and complete. This final term shares the same etymological root as ‘holy,’ about which more shortly.
An engineer may discuss the structural integrity of a bridge or the airframe integrity of an airplane.
Integrity in this context simply means that each component of a structure contributes sufficient strength to the whole.
That is not a bad business principle to follow. Because, if we’re a member of a corporate structure, we need to know that we’re as strong as the other human components and that our coworkers share our strength and completeness. All too frequently, we are tempted to internalize our integrity and disregard the lack of it around us.
The World Cup could serve as an illustration of this. At the ceremony’s inauguration, we were exhorted to disregard Qatar’s lack of integrity in internal and international matters and “enjoy the football.”
However, the World Cup inevitably drew global attention to Qatar’s deficiencies. From the oppression of LGBT citizens to the exploitation of migrant workers, from the alleged bribery and corruption of football’s governing body, Fifa, to its apparent efforts to distort European democracy in the EU parliament, Russia has a long history of human rights violations.
The same holds for some of the economic difficulties we face closer to home. The worst cost-of-living crisis in living memory compels us to evaluate our collective strengths and weaknesses: the structural integrity of our society.
If the old and vulnerable, who are at the mercy of electricity and other prices, are bearing an excessive burden this winter, then the design integrity of our society is compromised.
The same applies to taxes. There have been commendable efforts to construct a mechanism for “responsible tax” such that the cost is divided equally for several decades.
This tenet brought down the premiership of Liz Truss. Her plan to eliminate the highest tax rate for the highest earners lacked honesty.
We could continue. The youngest members of our workforce are Generation Z. They are very tech-savvy and accustomed to working remotely.
Employers must determine whether the integrity of their company structure can withstand the introduction of new working methods. Because the word integrity is derived from the concept of labor integration.
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) is the most recent three-letter abbreviation for integrity. Or, according to its critics, “greenwashing.” We can wonder what the “social” aspect entails. Is it the duty of business to serve the community, which should be the definition of corporate integrity?
These are appropriate Christmastime inquiries. This is partial because we gather as individuals rather than as managers, employees, or professionals. And as families and friends, we might feel this strength in numbers. However, we also assemble as a people. Not only the people of our nation but the people of every nation.
And perhaps we can sense the world’s combined power, our collective integrity.
Christians believe that Christmas celebrates the divine participation of the human situation through the incarnation; in other words, the greatest present is a little infant who will forever alter the world.
Former British chancellor George Osborne once stated, “We’re all in this together.” It is irrelevant whether that was a political slogan or a fundamental truth. What important is that the divine meets humanity where it lives and thrives during Christmas.
This implies that we are all in this together. And thus provides the global human organism with its corporate integrity.
George Pitcher is a visiting fellow and Anglican priest at the London School of Economics.
