Building on Corporate Integrity - Nu Leadership Series

”Wealth in the new regime flows directly from innovation, not optimization; that is, wealth is not gained by perfecting the known, but by imperfectly seizing the unknown.”
Kevin Kelly

What has caused the lack of trust among followers related to institutional leaders? We need to start with the basics. Leaders need more integrity. Simons maintains that the trust of subordinates is widely recognized as critical component for high performance organizations. In organizational culture, leaders then find themselves as institutional advocates; they influence how followers perceive organizational values.

Although many organizations are loaded with talented people on their teams, teamwork cannot exist unless there is trust since trust builds cohesiveness and creates synergism among team members. Given the nature of today’s competition, an employee could feel isolated and become fearful with the numerous organizational changes.

If communications are poor, it can increase the level of distrust toward management. From this initial research, it can be concluded that employees find it difficult to trust leaders who demonstrate no integrity.

Leaders must model good behavior. Personal values supply the basic convictions that provide a framework for personal conduct. Therefore, there is an obvious connection between personal and organizational value alignment. Conflicts arise when individuals have differing values in organizations. Behavioral integrity (BI) denotes the perceived degree of congruence between words expressed by a leader and the actions taken.

This creates value misalignment between the organization and the individual
follower. Obviously, today’s followers are closely watching the actions of their leaders to determine if they align with the leaders’ words. Therefore, leaders need to foster high integrity.

References:

Robbins, S. (2005). Organizational behavior. NY: Prentice Hall.

Simons, T. (1999). Behavioral integrity as a critical ingredient for transformational leadership. Journal of Organizational Change Management. 12(2), pp. 89-104.

© 2006 by Daryl D. Green

Examine how a leader’s integrity impacts an organization. Nu Leadership is a column that explores the changing workforce and social environment as it relates to leadership development.

Daryl D. Green has published over 100 articles in the field of decision-making and leadership. Mr. Green is an author of several books, including More Than A Conqueror. He has been noted in USA Today and AP. For one free coaching session ($50 value), you can email him at www.darylgreen.org.

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