Given the recent university admission scandal, I had to think of the virtue / value of integrity again, especially when adults or those in any leadership position should role model behaviors that correspond to values that bring about good changes in others through transformational leadership.
The above mentioned scandal in my opinion lacks integrity (along many other virtues), as integrity means living a value-driven life, or doing the right thing when nobody is watching. Integrity doesn’t mean doing the wrong thing and trying to get away with it because nobody is watching or has been watching.
Integrity doesn’t mean that you have others do work for you and claim it as your own so you get an advantage, whether you pay them or not is irrelevant here.
Integrity doesn’t mean you get to use a piece of work from someone else without asking that person if you can use it first, and claiming it as your own, especially when you use someone’s work to advance yourself financially, educationally or you use others’ work for promotional purposes to advance yourself.
Integrity means you credit the work of others if you use their work. Work here can easily be loosely defined, because each product is the work some someone else or the work of multiple people. Pieces of work can be such simple things as photographs that someone took, their are theirs, it means something to them. Another pieces of work are written materials, research in particular. People who have integrity don’t just use / cite other’s peoples words, they credit them, whether those words are direct quotes or were paraphrased. Like with a photograph, work goes into the written word, and in case of research, a lot of time and preparation, as in readings tons of materials to get to the point that research can even be published.
Why is integrity important to me? I like it as a value, and as a framework for a value set that I like to and strive hard to live by, so people see me as I would like to be seen: honest, reliable, a good role model to those whose lives I try to influence in a positive, transformational manner.
I think we can establish that the people allegedly involved in this university admittance scandal lack some basic values and further, they thought that it was okay to “feel entitled” to something and thereby taking away from someone else.
Given research findings pertaining to social learning, I think it is safe to assume that those people are not very good role models for others, especially those in this scandal, who were in actually leadership positions, whether they were the ones who paid or those who got paid.
People and institutions, the latter through mission/vission/value statements, establish who they are and what they stand for. They set the climate for followers or those they influence in schools, martial arts studios, other sports and businesses.
If any part of a person’s value or a business’ statements include the word integrity, anybody should be able to expect conduct in line with this. Anyone who takes the work of others and presents it as their own, need to owe up to it, by doing to appropriate repentance work examines the wrongdoing and coming up with a plan to not do it again, especially after having been caught and also, righting the wrong. Anything less than that shows lack of integrity, which people, especially those in leadership or those are see themselves as role models, should have.