Honour and integrity
A new thing that’s been appearing on appraisals and references is “Integrity”.
I find it difficult to imagine integrity without honour – for me they are synonymous. I appreciate that in work, one my find themselves in a situation where they are asked to do something unpleasant, even dishonourable but in these economic difficulties, it is interesting that integrity is seen as something to measure.
The key example I always think of is the Milgram experiment. “The Milgram experiment was a series of social psychology experiments conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram, which measured the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure who instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience. Milgram first described his research in 1963 in an article published in the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology”.
I have to be honest and say I don’t know how I would react in that circumstance, which would have horrified me at the age of 12. I like to think that I would not hurt people on the basis of someone’s whim just because I could abdicate responsibility. But I don’t know… My hope is that because Milgram exists do we have more right to say no than before?
Personally, I have made some cracking errors of judgement, and thankfully I have managed to learn from them. (I’m hoping by the time I get to 90, life is going to be much simpler).
Recently, I have found myself in a position where integrity and professionalism have conflicted. In this, it’s a matter of personality differences. I can be professional to the individual in how I treat them, yet there is no circumstance on this planet I could work for them. I don’t trust them and that would damage my integrity.
Yet, is that integrity, honour or simply pride?
Posted: August 28th, 2009 under 42.