IRS - Integrity Management

'A strong integrity policy forms an effective basis to meet changing societal and legal demands.'

Why is integrity important for organizations?

One of the reasons to fortify an organization’s integrity system is that the ethics of an organization and the integrity of its personnel directly relate to the sustainable success of organizations. An organization which invests in transparent relationships with its internal and external stakeholders, in which mutual responsibilities, expectations and objectives are well understood and closely observed, invests in its overall quality and value.

Effective management of integrity means building sustainable (public) trust. This trust plays a crucial role in the reputation of the organization. As soon as cases of unethical behaviour – including fraud, abuse and corruption – occur within the organization and become publicly known this has great impact on the organization’s reputation. In this sense unethical behaviour and doubts about the organization’s integrity are a serious risk to the organization’s good reputation. An elaborated integrity policy will help to mitigate reputation risks by monitoring and managing desired ethical behaviour.

Putting effort in issues of integrity also offers the opportunity to improve the work climate of the organization. By listening to people, paying attention to the ethical issues and dilemmas people are confronted with during their work and by providing ways to deal with situations and behaviour they perceive as unethical, managers and employees become more committed to the organization, increasing their motivation to do their jobs.

A strong integrity policy thereby forms a steady basis to meet the societal and legal demands organizations increasingly face. Principles of good Corporate Governance and strict rules of compliance are, besides growing burdens to the control systems of many organizations, a sign that organizations are held more and more accountable for the things they bring about. This accountability not only exists with regard to shareholders; it is equally present for other stakeholders and for society in general. In this respect, principles of Corporate Social Responsibility also gain importance.

Societal developments, Corporate Governance, compliance, the organization’s work climate, good reputation, (public) trust and incidences of severe unethical behaviour all are matters which directly have to do with the integrity of the organization. Each and any of these topics simply go back to the way ethics in the organization is managed: Is an organization likely to suffer from large cases of fraud if the ethics of all of its employees is closely monitored? Isn’t the organization which applies genuine ethical standards in all of its business activities seen as trustworthy? Is an ethical work climate not a condition under which personnel excellently performs? And are compliance, Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility not all mechanisms which finally aim to make organizations more ethical?

In this light it is obvious that adequately dealing with the issue of integrity in an organization is extremely important and that it means working on a lot of valuable issues at once.

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> Ethics & Business Integrity Accountability Framework
> EBIAF®
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