The initiative strives to foster a culture of integrity, and promote thought leadership and inquiry among scholars, students, and business leaders to address the ethical challenges inherent in our increasingly complex business world.
What We're Doing
The Sam M. Walton College of Business began the Business Integrity Leadership Initiative in January 2020 to bring a more comprehensive, strategic and influential approach to business ethics for our students and other stakeholders.
We are equipping future business leaders with a mindset that encourages them to act with integrity. We are also equipping current business leaders with a mindset that encourages them to lead with integrity for long-term, sustainable business success.
We’re accomplishing this by creating and sharing thought leadership and encouraging innovation through three channels: education, research and outreach. Our Initiative’s approach is practical, integrated, and experiential in nature.
Michele Edwards was a guest speaker for the Let's Talk about Keeping Your Word program. Michele Edwards has over 25 years of experience in fraud, compliance risk management, auditing and monitoring. In 2017, Edwards served as Chief of Staff for the independent compliance monitor and auditor team appointed by the Department of Justice for the VW monitorship.
12/07/2023
Learn from experts about the importance of keeping your word and following through with your actions.
08/24/2023
Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Bard, and DALL-E are disrupting the business world. How can leaders optimize this technology while keeping ethical guidelines?
06/30/2023 | By Cindy Moehring
In business, managers and leaders must act and lead with integrity to attain long-term, sustainable business success. That means all business students, and those managing and leading businesses need to understand business ethics, and how it affects a company’s strategy and operations.
To thrive, companies must be trusted. Studies indicate that stakeholders base their trust in a company primarily on their view of that company’s ethics.
Despite this, business leaders and even some CEOs fail to understand that their own unethical behavior affects how stakeholders view their company’s culture of ethics and integrity. In the past few years, we have unfortunately seen a record number of CEOs let go for unethical behavior.
With this Initiative, Walton College is poised to help reverse this trend and positively affect the amount of trust that current and future business leaders create for stakeholders.
"I’m excited to join the Sam M. Walton College of Business as the Founder and Executive Chair of the Business Integrity Leadership Initiative.
Operating with integrity was a core principle for Sam Walton, our college’s namesake, and how he ran his business, Walmart. This same focus has been carried over into the values of Walton College – excellence, professionalism, innovation and collegiality (EPIC).
Integrity is called out as one of the core behaviors that define “professionalism.” Because integrity is already woven into the values, Walton College is well-positioned to take a more comprehensive approach to integrating business ethics into the culture of the college itself, and the experience of all students and business stakeholders.
I am thrilled to be here and have the opportunity to work with the amazing faculty, staff and students who are eager to take business integrity to the next level at Walton College!"
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Two business degree programs with nine options for undergraduate majors.
Walton Business Majors and Minors
Walton MBA and nineteen additional Masters, Ph.D, and certificate programs. Full-time and part-time options for working professionals.
Explore Walton Graduate Programs
Programs for individuals and organizations: empowering leaders to innovate, enact change, and compete in today's economy.
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