View from the Mountain: Integrity In Management

One of the definitions of "integrity" is fairness. Most of us start a job expecting to work hard and to do our best at our assigned tasks. We expect to be treated fairly, and we give our loyalty to our company freely.

"Set your expectations high; find men and women whose integrity and values you respect; get their agreement on a course of action; and give them your ultimate trust."

John Akers

Unfortunately it does not take long for a new employee to figure out that what looks so great from the outside may well be rotten on the inside. Most professionals in a Fortune 50 company work in an environment directly influenced more by the CEO's personality than by top quality management theories or even laws governing the workplace.

It does not take many years to figure out men and women of integrity are often in short supply at many corporations. There are plenty of people willing to share a beer with you. There are lots of people who say good morning to you. There are very few who will stand up for you in a corporation. When trouble comes you are almost always on your own. Human Resources may be in the room with you, but you can be sure that they are not on your side.

It is not that your team members and compatriots do not care, it is the nature of the corporation. More than anything American corporations resemble herds of wild animals running at full speed, perhaps being chased by larger predators who pick off either ones trying to defend the herd or weaker members who can no longer keep up. Siding with someone outside the running pack is suicidal so it is no surprise you end up facing your problems alone.

It is actually not a very inspiring picture. Most corporations care little for individuals in spite of all the talk about human capital and how important people are to the success of the company.

The unfortunate view of many corporations is that this is a buyer's labor market and that replacing individual performers and managers is not a problem. In fact replacing many of the more experienced, older, and sometimes more outspoken employees often becomes a human resources goal.

In a company more interested in enforcing uniformity and top-down management, eliminating dissent often becomes a priority. The Human Resource team becomes an enforcement arm whose main goal is to please upper management.

Why would a company resort to tactics such as this. There is probably no simple answer to this, but usually cost management and arrogance are key factors when this happens.

We operate in a commodity world, when companies can no longer raise prices, the pressure to cut costs internally becomes intense. Cutting costs often involves paying people as little and slowly as possible. Many companies make much of their money on the time they are able to hold their customers' money before they have to pay their suppliers. Employees who have been in a company a long time are often expensive ones. They are often also ones who understand the vagaries of company compensation plans well enough to be able to call the so-called financial wizards on their tricks when they try pay less than people are due.

When individual deal sizes are small and the sales people do not have complete control over their customers because of multiple channels of distribution, corporations often think have little to lose in the short term if they have to switch field people. Bringing in someone new, often means reducing costs.

Companies that are farthest down the list on being fair to their employees, often also have huge problems with management teams that spend more time patting themselves on the back than actually really doing a good job.

As I have mentioned before these management teams are usually more interested in making certain they and their buddies keep their jobs than they are about really being accountable for their jobs.

Their arrogance often comes from the fact they know their accountability is very limited and they are not so dumb to understand that they are being paid far more than they are worth based on their job performance. Of course they are protected by their inner circle of corporate friends, and as long as that happens being fired is almost impossible. The goal is not to run the corporation well, the goal is to make as much money as possible for as long as they can. If you have been in a corporation long, the odds are you can tell the story of a manager from hell. Likely he left of his own free will instead of being fired. A head of HR once told me that Vice Presidents have the right to fail. What he probably meant was they have the right to treat their employees unfairly because no one in HR will call them on it.

This type of attitude often extends to corporate executives and even CEOs since many corporate boards are nearly toothless these days. Executives and upper management usually do as they please unless they drive the company into the ground. They usually have so many stock options that real long term results are irrelevant.

All of this breeds a toxic arrogance which probably was best expressed by a top hardware executive I once heard say, "Customers don't know what to buy, we have to tell them what to buy."

That may work in the short term, but it is a rare company that shoots the people with the greatest integrity and experience that still can create a sustainable business model built on corporate culture designed to reward employees fairly. Success can happen, but over time the best people are driven away, fired, or leave because the lack of fairness becomes hard to tolerate.

The very people who can pass on the corporate culture, renew the spirit of the company, and challenge ideas which might be wrong are sacrificed to the predators who care only about making money and protecting their jobs. The very people who tend to be the bricks and mortar of great companies not only do not get a chance to rise to the top, they and their ideas are trampled on by people with zero integrity.

As you face corporate challenges, remember companies rise and fall, they may leave their mark on you, but only you can give away your integrity. Stand tall for what you believe, and leave behind in the mud those who are willing to sell you or your ideals out for a commission check, a promotion, or just to please some higher-up manager.

They might get their pat on the back, pieces of silver or a hollow promotion, but your integrity will be intact and it is worth far more to you and to the world.

If you want something better than this, closely check out a corporation before you accept that job offer or look at smaller companies which often are more closely aligned with true performance management and often even have a strong moral compass. There is hope in the world of business, just do not expect the outer image of a corporation to necessarily match the inner truth. Sometimes success comes at a very high cost and that cost is exacted psychologically and financially from many of the employees doing the real work in the corporation.

No matter where you work, keep your integrity even if it costs you your job.

Standing alone in the light of truth and fairness is far better than crouching in the dark with those whose highest goal is a bigger paycheck or more stock options.