Integrity management systems: What integrity is about, how it relates to corruption and what helps to protect integrity and curb corruption

Our chapter introduces the theme ‘integrity development’. This theme pertains to measures developed in the (semi) public and private sectors to foster higher standards of professional conduct. We focus on programs, procedures and functionaries that help to protect integrity and prevent integrity violations including corruption. Present knowledge and research on ‘integrity management systems’ are summarized and analyzed. We discuss four key characteristics of a mature integrity management system, followed by the presentation of an elaborate model of such a system. This model has been developed and theoretically and empirically substantiated by researchers of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam in the last two decades. The chapter ends with a summary of our delineation of crucial concepts such as ‘integrity’ and ‘corruption’, and with reflection on the applicability of the VU model in the public, semi-public and private sector and on the model’s possible Western bias.