Integrity is More Important for Business Professionals than It Is for Business Students: Do You Agree?

As per quote by Allen Simpson, “If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters” (WebProNews, 2004). Thus integrity is significantly important for any business. Also, “In recent research performed by the Institute of Business Ethics- an organization which is among the world's leaders in promoting corporate ethical best practices, it was found that companies displaying a "clear commitment to ethical conduct" almost invariably outperform companies that do not display ethical conduct.”( WebProNews, 2004). The above research clearly defines the value of integrity, misleading information or manipulation of information may help companies to achieve short-term success, though it is not ethical or lawful, however ethical practices and high quality standards would help business on long term growth. This practices starts from student life and helps to generate future leaders who can run an organization with high Integrity, and thus integrity is equally important for business students as well business professionals.
Furthermore, Integrity is more than high ethical standards and honesty, students and professionals are expected to act not only in professional manner, but expected to take responsibility of their acts and impacts on corporation, community and world. Failure like Enron indicates the impact of compromised integrity on society, misleading information caused not only business failure, but thousands of employees lost retirement saving, jobs etc. Which would have larger impact on society than just closing business doors.
Reference :
Moment, R. (2004). The 7 Principles of Business Integrity. Web Pro News. Retrieved from