Honesty, Integrity, and Transparency

1. Honesty

There is truth in the old saying that honesty is the best policy. Whether you are confronting a colleague, delivering constructive criticism, or even sharing bad news it is always best to be honest. The reality is people will eventually figure out the truth, and unless you are honest your own credibility may be at risk.

Like other workplace communications, honesty (and dishonesty) can be internal or external. Internal dishonesty might be fudging your timesheet or expense report, stealing wages from employees by shortchanging their paychecks, or lying about the source of a problem in order to stay out of trouble. External dishonesty would be giving inaccurate or misleading information to customers, shareholders, the public, or the government. There are a few infamous cases where dishonesty essentially became corporate policy, such as the tobacco industry denying that cigarettes were harmful, or Purdue Pharma claiming that the prescription painkiller OxyContin was less addictive than other opioids. These instances of corporate dishonesty in pursuit of profits led directly to millions of premature deaths and ruined lives.

Furthermore, when companies adopt dishonest practices, it suggests to employees that they can do the same. A company that is lying to customers is cultivating a culture of dishonesty, which can give ethical leeway to employees to pilfer supplies, doctor their hours, or pad their expense reports. It can also be disastrous for morale and trust when dishonesty is found out.

think about it

Gina works as a researcher for an educational company that creates curriculum. She completes a study to prove that their most popular product, a set of math lessons, helps students achieve high level proficiency at a younger age. Unfortunately the data at the end of the study is inconclusive. Gina considers tweaking the data so it looks more favorable to the product. In the end, she decides she had better be honest, and shares the blunt truth with her director. The director suggests she “give the data another look” to make sure she’s “interpreting it correctly.” She feels he is nudging her to do exactly the kind of misrepresentation of the data she already considered. She knows that if she quits, they will simply hire someone else who will “interpret” the data the way the director wants, and she would be prohibited by her contract to tell anyone. What do you think Gina should do?

2. Transparency

Dishonesty is not only the result of bald-faced lying. Most dishonest companies and employers are dishonest through omission, and by being quiet or secretive about important information in a lack of transparency. Transparency is closely connected to honesty. It describes having processes and procedures in place to ensure that decisions are clear, whether or not anyone asks directly for the information. In essence, transparency is avoiding being dishonest by not telling the full truth. The culture of many workplaces can lead to unnecessary secrecy and a lack of transparency, particularly from the top down.

EXAMPLE

Laurel is passed over for a promotion in favor of John. She is upset because she has been at the company for longer and has had consistently excellent performance reviews. Her supervisor doesn’t give any explanation for the decision, but says he picked the person he thought was best fit for the job. There may be good reasons for choosing John over Laurel, but without transparency it feels like sexism to many people in the office.

There are instances where a leader may not be able to disclose all information until a more appropriate time. For example, a government leader may not be able to fully disclose all known information because of national security, or a senior executive aware of a pending acquisition is prohibited by federal law to share the news until it is made public. Legal and ethical privacy rules are kept by professionals at any level in government, business, healthcare, and academia. But even in those situations one can be transparent by stating the reasons they cannot disclose information.

EXAMPLE

A hospital director is asked whether a public figure is receiving medical treatment at the hospital. Stating that to answer the question would violate health privacy laws is more transparent and honest than pretending not to know.

However, some companies have a culture of silence that keeps information private even if people have a real need to know.

EXAMPLE

A webmaster notices that the company website has been hacked and spams messages inserted into the code. He had assured his supervisors that he had the site secured, so he quickly scrubs the code, installs updated security software, and tells no one. However, the breach could also expose user data like usernames and passwords to the hackers, so there is a legal and ethical obligation to inform both his supervisors and their client base.

Even if there is temporary professional embarrassment, being honest and transparent builds credibility and trust with one's audience. Being honest and transparent also enables a more free and open communication environment whereby the receivers of the message are more likely to engage in constructive and positive feedback. As such, honesty and transparency should be considered the foundation for all human communications.

term to know

Transparency

Making information available that people have a right to know and which doesn’t violate privacy laws or ethics.

3. Integrity

Integrity can be described as “saying what you do and doing what you say.” It is related to personal branding in the sense that both what you say and do are consistent with who you are across all human interactions. You live up to your own stated values and principles. By being a person of integrity, you build credibility and trust, and trust is the foundation for all human relationships.

EXAMPLE

Richard, the leader of an organization, consistently sends mixed messages, saying one thing and doing another. For example, he stresses that people should be on time and never leave early, but he often leaves early himself. It won't take long for the members of that organization to lose trust in Richard's leadership ability, when they regularly observe him not following his own instructions, which may make him less effective when setting other goals or standards. It would be better if Richard admitted his own failings, and stressed other elements of job performance that were consistent with his own behavior. For example, he might leave early but never before he’s met all of his obligations for the day. To emphasize that would be consistent with his own behavior, and he would have integrity.

Similarly, a company that doesn’t live up to its own stated values is also going to lose trust both internally and externally. For example, a nonprofit organization that states they are committed to diversity and inclusion will lose integrity if their own leadership and board of directors lack diversity.

EXAMPLE

Debra is a new hire at a company that prides itself on being an inclusive and equitable workplace. Entry level jobs are advertised in the community as being a place where people of all identities can find opportunity and become a success. When she first negotiated her salary, Debra asked for a list of salary tiers in the company, but she was assured that she was being offered the highest salary possible for her role. Some months later, an anonymous spreadsheet is distributed among employees, asking them to list their salaries, race, and gender. It quickly becomes clear that white men were being paid more than women and people of color at all levels of the company. Debra would be frustrated with this pay inequality and lack of transparency about salary ranges no matter what, but the contrast between the company's dishonest self-representation as being an equitable workplace and the reality of the payroll is especially upsetting and shows that the company lacks integrity. Debra sends the spreadsheet to a local reporter and begins looking for other work, now armed with more honest information about how much her labor should be worth to an employer.

think about it

What are your own core professional values? It’s easy to generate a list of those attributes you think all employers want to see: hardworking, honest, prompt, etc. But identifying the principles that you most believe in and exhibit will help you achieve integrity. For example, maybe you are not as diligent as others, but do see innovative ways to make work more efficient. If you adopt “work smarter, not harder,” as your personal slogan, you are “doing what you say” and have integrity. Your personal brand can be built around these values.

term to know

Integrity

Communicating and living up to your guiding principles, both as individuals and as organizations.

watch

Meet Sam, who works in IT security and is responsible for data protection.