The Foundation for Building Organizational Integrity
What is the role of companies in society? Can we derive purpose and thus a catalyst effect from gaining clarity on this question? The first contribution of this section dealing with more humanistic management revisits the crucial role of different purposes of management and more balanced management systems in general. It argues that an integrity-based enterprise can play an important role in global transcendence toward a better world. Beyond the normative call, the chapter illustrates the different journeys of three entrepreneurs who serve as exemplary role models. Their inner calling to leave behind classic business pressures and careers on certain occasions is inspirational. The fully intrinsic approach to integrity reaches unprecedented degrees of authenticity and credibility.
The chapter also demonstrates the crucial role of consistency. Integrity is a multifaceted notion. Thus, consistency emerges as an additional condition sine qua non when it comes to building the right type of organizations. The chapter adds yet another key element to integrity, which is found in an intensified action focus. We also need, to some degree, an entrepreneurship attitude where we get started, learn, and adapt fast. Trying to launch the perfect solution from day one is overly ambitious.
The second contribution of this section deals with a consulting model able to clarify core values and promote organizational integrity. Getting one’s moral compass in order is key to avoiding friction in the wrong place and aligning the entire organization. Organizations that have the future in focus are concerned with the kinds of meaning that will sustain it for the long term. In this chapter, we explore how diverse challenges for different organizations amount to a common goal of enduring for future success. They are organizations that act beyond a goal of profitability and have a vision that generates clarity during times of turbulence or flourishing. Adding empirical depth to the chapter, three different consulting engagements with three heterogeneous organizations yield corroborative insights. The chosen organizations are all SMEs and the consulting engagements centered on each entity identifying and defining their core values and vision statements. Core values acted out by organizations represent expressions of integrity, which in turn constitutes the kinds of meaning that are most meaningful to each entity. A wholeness or completeness, or in other words integrity, in organizations is the result of actions based on a clear set of core values. By having a set of core values that function as organizing principles, the entity has clarity in the decisions it makes down to the routine practices of everyday operations.