Integrity in business and academia
Authors: Emeritus Professor Greg Whateley and Professor Ian Bofinger
February 2025
The term integrity is bandied around a bit these days – but it is a critical element of both business and academia. The more it is talked about – the better.
A recent book (Whateley, Kopanakis and Bofinger – 2024) goes into considerable detail on the topic with 29 chapters exploring a range of applications and contexts (both in business and academia) in which integrity plays a vital part in ensuring that standards are maintained and businesses flourish.
Integrity in both business and academia
Whateley (2024 p7) argues that ‘integrity plays an important role in both business and academia. The need for trustworthy and ethical behaviour cannot be over-emphasised. At the end of the day, integrity is at the very heart of our being – if we do not have it – we essentially have nothing’ ‘The literature is filled with examples of what integrity is – how it can be achieved – how do you measure it and what are the essential traits of a person on integrity.’
Integrity in corporate environments
Kopanakis (2024 p21) is adamant that ‘From regulatory investigations and reviews to Royal Commissions, Senate enquiries, landmark court orders, injunctions, corporate penalties, ceasing of trade, corrupt practices investigations, and abuses of power – corporate accountability and responsibility has never been as critical’ He goes on to state ‘Company directors, executives, stakeholders, and key management personnel/responsible parties must ensure the accuracy, reliability, and integrity of company data that they not only represent, but champion, should be reliable, dependable and hold up to scrutiny against legal and regulatory frame-works’.
Academic integrity
In the era of generative artificial intelligence Bofinger (2024, p13) states ‘Academic misconduct in the form of contract cheating has attracted significant attention in the media and higher education literature in recent times. While contract cheating is not a new concept, outsourcing academic assessment has become more prevalent or perhaps more efficient with advances in informative technology. The disruption to on campus studies due to COVID-19 saw a speedy transition to digital learning and online assessment platforms which increased the opportunity for cheating’. The technology creates new challenges to integrity that must be faced head on.
A further 24 chapters - by a range of informed authors - provide valuable insight into the challenges facing integrity - but throughout reinforce the need to maintain it at all costs.
A free of charge eCopy of the complete book is available at – https://www.musicum20.com/_files/ugd/6113ad_76431576c88b473f88d265d2a81114bc.pdf
Emeritus Professor Greg Whateley is CEO and Executive Dean at the Australian Guild of Education (Melbourne)
Professor Ian Bofinger is CEO and Executive Dean at the Australian Academy of Music and Performing Arts (Sydney)
