A Closer Look: Definition of Integrity

Integrity is the following of moral or ethical principles. When someone is said to be a person of integrity, this generally means that he/she is considered to have a strong moral character. Integrity is thought by many to be one of the most important virtues a person can possess.

To have integrity, a person must base his/her actions upon a well-thought out framework of moral principles. What he/she does should be the same as what he/she says. For example, a person who speaks about the need to improve the educational system in the United States would have integrity if he/she volunteered to tutor local school children, voted for a proposal to give raises to high performing teachers, or gave money to charities that provided scholarships for deserving students.

Testing for Integrity

Since integrity is closely linked with honesty, it should come as no surprise that integrity tests are routinely used by businesses throughout the United States. These tests are particularly common among those seeking to hire people for low-skilled service positions that involve much public contact, such as convenience store employees and retail clerks.

The tests claim to be able to help detect employees who would engage in counterproductive activities such as theft, tardiness, or excessive absenteeism. However, the tests are not perfect and different screening tools can often produce contradictory results.

Integrity Is Based on Ethics

While integrity is the following of moral or ethical principles, ethics is the development of the actual standards which are to be followed including what is right and wrong, and what is moral and immoral.

Determining What Is Ethical

There are many ways and guidelines to determine what is ethical:

• Public Policy - Sometimes public policy determines what is ethical. If you behave in line with what most people believe is right, you will be behaving ethically; but, what if everyone believes it is right to have slaves or to kill elderly people? In those cases, the popular beliefs would not be ethical or moral even though a code of society says they are alright.
• Personal Judgment - What is ethical can come from what you know in your heart is right. However, people from different cultural backgrounds and different situations may have different moral codes.

• Moral Truths - Deciding what is ethical can come from widely held beliefs. For example, it is widely considered an inalienable truth that killing is wrong, but even this creates ethical problems. What about killing in war or assisted suicides, for example?

There is no clear answer to what is ethical or to what ethical behavior is. Many turn to religion or to the law to give guidance as to ethical behavior.

Examples of Ethical Codes

Individual codes of ethics are commonly seen as those unwritten rules of behavior instilled in an individual by their upbringing and environment. Society at large assumes that certain ethical behaviors are defined regardless of religion, geographic location or nationality.

Examples of societal ethical behavior can include such things as:

• Respect for another’s property
• Refraining from violence against another
• Treating others with civility

Tenets of a religion can also be considered to be a code of ethics. One of the most famous codes of ethics that apply to individuals is the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments find their roots in religion and not all of them will resonate with all people. Most people, however, can appreciate the ethical reasoning behind at least some of the Ten commandments even if they do not believe the religious teachings surrounding them:

1. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them.
3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.

Codes of ethics are present at all levels of society, business and individual behavior. Many are codified in writing and enforced with penalties while others are more malleable and dependent on the individual’s perception of right and wrong.

Regardless of their source or means of enforcement, codes of ethics permeate modern life and are factors to be considered in almost every facet of daily life, from proper work behavior to double parking to grabbing the daily latte. Remember, a person's integrity is based on their ability to follow these ethical and moral principles.