(Draft) Ethical Capital and the Culture of Integrity : 3 Cases in UK and NZ

The practices of Integrity have been seen as a somewhat neglected element in business at many levels from individual to corporate and in many sectors across the global economy. In other words, the basic honesty, fairness and professionalism demonstrated in routine,daily, daily business practice. Integrity is often mentioned in policy statements and documents, officially embodied and enacted through recruitment policy, communication of core values and basic principles, workplace rules or codes of best practice, reinforced and disseminated through staff training and managers who ‘walk the talk'.The criticisms leveled at US business such as those of Lorsch, Berlowitz and Zelleke, (2005) can also be laid at the door of businesses elsewhere in the world. The economic crisis of the last few years and the potential for a double dip recession due to fiscal and banking problems in the systems in the US and EU have raised and sharpened the questioning of how the global community will not only regulate systems but also appropriately and rigorously educate future leaders to operate businesses with integrity.Integrity has been variously defined and we will seek to address this central aspect of building sustainable ethical capital in organisations in the introduction and outline of the chapter in terms of paradigms, practices and perspectives of the foundational ideals intended and applied. We will focus on the organisational level rather than individual level. The case organisations are embedded in different local and national contexts, so legal constraints vary although they share some common foundations and historical basis.This chapter reviews three case studies in how integrity is defined and enacted through principles, policies and practices of three organisations who regard integrity as a core value and Unique Selling Point. Two of the organizations are in the UK, arguably the birthplace of capitalism and the industrial revolution. The other case study organization is in New Zealand; a country known for its ‘clean, green' image. These organisations are from different sectors in the economy and range in size from an established SME to a major retail bank