Organisational integrity, citizenship, and legitimacy

This chapter analyses organisational integrity based on corporate citizenship understood as ethical behaviour with integrity as constitutive of business legitimacy. As articulation of an ethical culture of corporate virtues, organisational integrity expresses the ethical and political unity of the business organisation. Organisational integrity is essential for business legitimacy since it is a result of trustworthy action, values-driven management and presupposes an ethical culture of the organisation. To demonstrate this connection between organisational integrity, business ethics, and business legitimacy, the chapter proposes a theory of organisational integrity as a virtue of good corporate citizenship. In this context, organisational integrity is essential for building and maintaining business legitimacy in organisations. Moreover, as constitutive of business legitimacy, organisational integrity is developed, realised, and maintained through ethical judgement as essential for decision-making in organisations.