This is one of my rare contributions, but it goes to the core of our work and what we (I) should stand for.
The real challenging aspect of integrity is establishing and maintaining it. Easier said than done.
Integrity (definition a.o. see Wikipedia
Integrity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia) is something like, how should I say that in a political correct manner, virginity. You can loose it only once. The Wikipedia description is just one part of the proper definition.
In the practical life of UPS, I sincerely question, how management can maintain and sustain this considering the extreme pressure they are under. Lower levels of "management" aka Part-time sups are under levels of pressure to keep up with their paperwork, "manage personnel, not work on the belts (even though we all know that we do not have robots working at a consistent level of n-number per packages per hour throughout the entire sort, comply with requirements of the proper procedure for breaking jams and still maintain your "numbers" and of course "damaged packages) etc."
Unfortunately, the rot that I see even on lower levels is an indication, of who succumbs and who does not, telling the higher levels that their Hans Christian Andersen or Grimm's fairy tales of information does not support integrity. I was recently asked to put my signature for somebody else on one of the internal documents, and I only looked at the person and asked him: You want me to do what?
Is this the rot, that exists at UPS and tries to promote?
And that was one working day after UPS executed (literally) or should I say performed a major management change based on major ethics violations. In a way it was expected, but the day was not known. And then the executors stepped in.
Based on my age and experience, I do consider myself a fossil, but ethics and integrity will survive even those events. It is undeniably a part of history, whichever side you are on. However, it takes a moral backbone that seems to be less and less in existence for the sheer pursuit of monetary compensation aka greed.
I have worked in countries, where adjusting actions due to internal and external influences was taken for granted, but external and independant controls were part of life due to the global implications for a major branded company. And external influences tried to tempt me. The only way out was keeping your superiors informed (verbal and in writing) about these events (the entire truth and circumstances), and thus I was able to maintain my integrity. It was not always easy, especially in my earlier professional life, as I had absolutely no guidance.
