Importance of Integrity

At the heart of professional ethics is integrity. Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles that you refuse to change. This means doing the right thing in all circumstances, no matter how difficult that might be.

Professional integrity reflects the culture of the organisation. It takes into account the underlying behaviours, attitudes, beliefs and core values that employees within the business bring to their working lives from outside work. These characteristics provide a guide as to the behaviour of personnel and will influence the likelihood of them tolerating or participating in practices such as fraud, bribery and corruption.

Developing the organisational culture and educating personnel around these core values will reduce the likelihood of negative business practices within the organisation.  But remember that your core values and beliefs are formed over a long period of time and cannot be changed overnight.

Doing business with integrity should be the minimum standard in procurement supply. However, in a global economy supply chains are complex, often with suppliers in different countries and subject to different laws and regulations. This makes it difficult for procurement teams to track everything that takes place across the supply chain.

These are some of the characteristics that can influence our attitude to integrity, depending on where we live and our national culture:

• Language
• Culture
• Business traditions
• Level of formality of business activities
• Implementation of labour laws
• Underlying social issues
• Gender discrimination
• Bribery and corruption
• Health and Safety legislation

Integrity and the procurement professional  

Procurement professionals must adhere to a code of ethics or conduct in all their activities and this code frequently includes integrity as a key procurement principle.