Definitions

This glossary explains the key concepts and terminology that underpin our approach to governance and organisational integrity. Understanding these concepts provides valuable insight into how organisations can make moral decisions, strengthen accountability, and create cultures that support both integrity and justice.

Governance

The way in which an organisation, governmental institution, or country is led at the highest level (political or supervisory boards) and the systems for doing this fairly. Democratic Governance is based on building open, responsive, and accountable organisations and institutions and democratic processes that serve justice within the organisations and government institutions for their employees, their partners and those they serve.

Integrity

Acting with integrity means acting in accordance with justice. An act must do justice to all concerned. This applies to both individuals and organisations and their stakeholders. Integrity is not a personal characteristic or attribute, instead it relates to specific actions and behaviours.

An integrity system

The integrity system is a set of policies, processes and practices which an organisation uses to manage and maintain its integrity. A well-functioning integrity system leads to the reduction of integrity violations and morally wrong decision making. An organisation’s integrity system comprises of two subsystems and each subsystem has two interdependent and mutually reinforcing components.

The moral learning process

The moral learning process ensures that the organisation practices making difficult decisions through a process that carefully weighs all considerations and all concerned. The moral learning process consists of the practice of moral decision-making and the development of the organisation’s moresprudence.

The compliance practice

The compliance practice identifies risks, prevents violations of the Code of Conduct and external legislation (preventive cycle), and applies a just system of assessment, investigation, and disciplinary action/punishment should a violation have taken place (repressive apparatus). This holistic approach sets out clear expectations for all those in the organisation and provides a framework that protects individuals and addresses issues fairly and proportionately.

Moral deliberation

Moral deliberation refers to the process of evaluating and weighing the moral arguments of a particular action or decision. It involves considering the values and principles that underlie a given situation and determining whether an action or decision is in accordance with justice.

Moresprudence

Moresprudence is systematically collected moral knowledge within an organisation. This is knowledge that an organisation builds over time by analysing core dilemmas, warnings of mission drift and mission overdrive and holding regular moral deliberations and creating an archive of their outcomes. These findings should then be adopted into the mission statement, guiding principles, and code of conduct.

Compliance

This refers to how the compliance with laws and external and internal regulations and rules is organised and enforced. Compliance always contains a preventive element (consultation, information transfer, encouragement, etc.) and a repressive element (warning, coercion, official proceedings, imposing punishment). Within the integrity system, compliance includes the repressive apparatus and the preventive cycle.

Repressive apparatus

To create a safe working place where violations will be reported, it is important that justice is done, and that it is seen to be done. Within the integrity system, the repressive apparatus refers to the procedure to handle behaviour that violates the organisation’s code of conduct. The repressive apparatus includes reporting, triage, preliminary assessment, disciplinary investigation, disciplinary measures, restorative justice, reparation, and other measures, including care for the reporter/victim. A particularly important feature of a repressive apparatus is the ability to calibrate the organisation’s response to the violation. Punishment should not be determined through overreaction, yet organisations should have a zero-tolerance policy against non-action.

Preventive cycle

This component is aimed at identifying risks of integrity violations and then implementing preventive measures (in the form of policies, processes, and procedures and the socialisation of these) to reduce or eliminate those risks.

Restorative justice

These are measures aimed at repairing the harm caused. Simply put, the perpetrator or the organisation where the violation occurs, acknowledges the harm to the victim, apologises, and takes other agreed measures. These measures can be taken in addition to or instead of disciplinary measures.

Moral injury

A form of trauma caused by witnessing, perpetrating, or failing to prevent an act that an individual perceived to be morally wrong. Perception plays the decisive role: the injury occurs regardless of whether the act was in fact morally wrong. Moral injury is an under-researched topic, but there are good reasons to believe that moral injury is a significant risk in the humanitarian/development, healthcare, welfare, environmental, and children’s rights sector.

Moral stress

A form of stress resulting from having to make difficult decisions (often repeatedly) under conditions of moral uncertainty. This leads to (sometimes compulsive) mental revisiting of difficult moral situations and decisions, and associated doubts, guilt and feelings of powerlessness which can be understood and relieved through a process of moral deliberations.

Mission drift

The situation where employees within an organisation drift or are driven away from the mission and core tasks. Mission drift means that decisions of the organisation repeatedly deviate from the mission and its guiding principles. It is a form of institutional corruption at the level of its core values (not to be confused with other forms of corruption).

Mission overdrive

Refers to cases where the mission of an organisation is prioritised to such an extent that certain other interests, including the rights of others, are not recognised or pushed aside as a result. All organisations are at risk of mission overdrive. In value-driven organisations, it can be harder to spot this because the mission itself is often focused on justice. This can lead to insufficient attention to the interests and rights of others, a kind of tunnel vision.