Trust-Its Benefits 181- Integrity
Integrity is sometimes defined around the concepts ‘consistency’ and
‘reliability’^177. There is, however, also an ethical element needed before
integrity can be ascribed to a person or institution. A person, who is con-
sistently ill-behaved to the extent that one can almost rely on this person
to act in that fashion, does not fit the description of a person with integ-
rity. The ethical element implied in the concept of integrity is that of
fairness. Fairness refers to the ethical consideration of the interests of
others. The literature on trust highlights these features of integrity, for
instance, Barber (in Husted, 1998) emphasises ‘moral obligations’.
Mayer et al. (1995) list integrity as an antecedent of trust under which
they include fairness, consistency and reliability, while Engelbrecht and
Cloete (2000) confirmed Mayer et al.’s notion of integrity in their re-
search.
We thus ascribe integrity to persons or institutions when they con-
sistently act in a fair or ethical manner^178. One consequently can rely on
them, because you know that they are unlikely to deviate from their eth-
ical values. This link between integrity and ethics is so intimate that the
two concepts are often used as synonyms. - Benevolence
Benevolence is demonstrated in actively doing what is good for oth-
ers. In order to be perceived as trustworthy, a trustee should at the very
least be perceived as not taking advantage of the vulnerability of a trus-
tor. Although not taking advantage is a necessary condition for benevo-
lence, it is not sufficient. The trustee should also take an active interest
in the well-being of the trustor^179. In this regard, Mishra said that trust-
worthiness is enhanced by the willingness of the trustee to “... also be
177
178 Seiling, 1997:131^
179 Husted, 1998; Mishra, 1996^
Mayer et al., 1995