This sub-theme explores aspects of ethical behaviour and the related concepts of integrity and trust. Ethical behaviour refers to an actor’s behaviour, while integrity is generally considered to be a quality or characteristics of an actor. Perspectives on integrity include the wholeness perspective, stressing the need for consistency in the actor's behaviour, and the moral perspective, stressing the role of moral values and norms. Trust is commonly conceptualized as the willingness of one party to be vulnerable to another party.

Theorists often describe the three concepts in conjunction with one another while focussing on only one. For example, integrity is sometimes described as either a component or a precursor of trust. There are a number of questions that might be addressed by considering these concepts more closely. The following are examples for questions that could be addressed:

• What are the inter-relationships of ethical behaviour, integrity, and trust?
• What are the similarities and differences between ethical behaviour and integrity?
• Does ethical behaviour always imply an actor with (high) integrity?
• Can an actor who has high integrity behave unethically?
• Can trust exist without the ethical or moral dimension? Is trust without ethics a desirable concept?
• What is the relationship between ethical behaviour and trust (or unethical behaviour and distrust)? Is integrity really as centrally important to trust as e.g. Mayer, Davis and Schoorman (1995) suggest? Under which conditions, for which relationships?
• If integrity in leaders refers to consistency of behaviour, how important is the moral dimension to that consistency? If integrity in leaders refers to the moral dimension, how important is the consistency of behaviour to the moral dimension?
• How does culture influence what makes individual or organizational integrity or ethical behaviour?

The wave of recent scandals has led to an explosion of new regulations, monitoring and sanctioning institutions (e.g. Sarbanes Oxley in the US). However, such regulations, may have paradoxical effects. The sub theme will also include papers that consider the effects of these new regulations.

• Under what conditions do regulations and sanctions enforce ethical behaviour?
• Which regulations and sanctioning systems influence moral motivation negatively?
• How can a vicious cycle between formal control, distrust and unethical behaviour be avoided?
• What formal regulations and incentives systems are likely to engender trust, integrity and ethical behaviour?

Over time expectations about what constitutes ethical behaviour, an actor’s integrity or an actor’s trustworthiness have changed:

• How do (moral) values and norms change over time and how do these changes impact what behaviour is deemed ethical (or unethical), when actors are deemed to have high integrity (or not) and when actor's are seen as trustworthy (or not)?
• What made individuals or organizations trustworthy or have high integrity in different times?
• What was considered ethical and unethical behaviour in organizations at different times?

The issues of ethical behaviour, integrity, and trust have been investigated differently in public administration and management. One of the goals of this sub-theme is to bring together the perspectives of these two fields, welcoming scholars from both.

Given the range of questions raised, we expect that a varied set of methodologies and theoretical orientations will be appropriate.

About the convenors

Frédérique Six is lecturer Governance and Management at the Vrije University Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Her research interests are the management of integrity and trust in the public and private sector. She holds a PhD in Management from the Erasmus University Rotterdam and is now part of the VU Amsterdam research group Integrity of Governance.

Steven Grover is a professor of management and deputy dean at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. He studies leader integrity and is a member of the EGOS board.

Antoinette Weibel is Oberassistentin (equivalent to assistant professor) at the University of Zurich, Institute for Organization and Administrative Science. She holds a PhD in Management Studies from the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Her research focus is on trust and specifically on vicious and virtuous cycles of formal regulations, trust and moral motivation. Antoinette is an executive member of FINT (first international network on trust).