Integrity in the Workplace

This chapter explores the history of moral integrity constructs in the working environment, which commenced in the United States in the beginning of the twentieth century with the aim to optimise the recruitment process and decrease economic losses caused by counterproductive work behaviour. It introduces overt and covert moral integrity assessment tools, discussing their psychometric properties, as well as general utility, acceptability, and limitations given by their mostly commercial purposes, ad hoc created operational definitions, and research bias. Using an example of Robinson and Bennet’s concept of Work Deviance, it shows the methodology of integrity tests construction, which could be eventually seized also in ethical research; it is re-emphasised, though, that the current conceptions defining integrity as adherence to the employer’s rules cannot capture the person’s morality as such, and, moreover, can be utterly confusing should the rules be unethical.