Global Integrity 9

Hiding Hypocrisy
...at all levels
Moral wholeness for a whole world

Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

Luke 12:1

Do you not know that a little leaven
leavens the whole lump of dough?
I Corinthians 5:6.

Integrity is moral wholeness—living consistently in moral wholeness. Its opposite is corruption, the distortion, perversion, and deterioration of moral goodness, resulting in the exploitation of people. Global integrity is moral wholeness at all levels in our world—from the individual to the institutional to the international. Global integrity is requisite for “building the future we want—being the people we need.” It is not easy, it is not always black and white, and it can be risky. These entries explore the many facets of integrity with a view towards the global efforts to promote sustainable development and wellbeing.

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Integrity does not mean perfection. It does mean though that if one makes a mistake or does something wrong, then he/she is willing to acknowledge it, and as necessary apologize and make amends. So integrity at all levels involves a commitment to act with moral wholeness, realizing that one will fall short of the moral mark. It also means understanding that we may try to rationalize away our responsibility for our mistakes or wrongdoings: hypocrisy. Hypocrisy can trump integrity. And I think we are all guilty of this at times. So...we must trust ourselves to act with integrity, but not trust ourselves completely.

The excerpt below is from a guest weblog I (Kelly) did recently for the CHS Alliance (24 February 2016). The title is Ten Psychological Tricks for Avoiding Accountability. It could also be titled: Ten Tricks for Feigning Integrity or Ten Tricks for Hiding Hypocrisy.

Hiding Hypocrisy
“Here are ten tactics used to avoid accountability for mistakes, poor practice, dysfunction, and outright deviance…These tactics illustrate what not to do when we and our organisations are asked to give an account of our work - be it via routine self-assessments or requests to explain our actions. They can serve to minimise cognitive dissonance, to protect ourselves, or to intentionally misrepresent the facts. Understanding how we can get it wrong can be a helpful way to avoid some of these proven “tactical tricks” for avoiding accountability.

1. Delegate the matter to someone else internally - diffuse it, distance yourself from it - and do everything to avoid an internal and especially an independent review.

2. Avoid, reword, or repackage, the issues - obfuscate the facts, or at least talk tentatively or vaguely about some mistakes in the past and that you or someone could probably have done a better job on … but go no further; rationalise and/or disguise any culpability.

3. Focus on minor or “other” things so as to look like you are focusing on the central things, punctuating it all with the language of transparency and accountability."

Applications

--Have a look at all 10 Tricks. Are there any that apply to you?

--What do you think of the assertion that we can ' trust ourselves but not completely'?