The integrity problem in higher education: description, consequences, and recommendations.

Integrity implies individual responsibility to community goals of the academy, including dignity goals, fairness, and responsibility. Integrity problems occur when individuals' personal and professional capacities and ethics are impeded in meeting those goals. We give a case wherein faculty, staff, and students are thwarted by colleagues, administrators, and organisational factors. This caused a debilitating integrity problem for some community members. Integrity problems affect individuals' effectiveness, motivation, and health, as well as programmatic integrity, organisational operations, interpersonal relations, and matters of individual trust, morale, and insecurity. In turn, the integrity problem has significant consequences for education and its societal role. We offer individual and organisational strategies to address the integrity problem and strengthen communities of academic practice for enhanced integrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]