By Leslie Pratch
Now let’s look at the current development of the high and low integrity executives.
Current Family Setting. All of the high integrity executives were in stable marriages. They described their wives in unequivocally positive terms and with personalities that resembled their mothers. They viewed their wives as intelligent, active, and with one exception, independent. They viewed their wives as caring and nurturing. The wives seemed to support and understand their husband’s passions. Although many had advanced degrees, even if they worked, only one had a high-powered career. Instead, they focused on the family.
Four of the six low integrity executives were married. These executives offered little content or descriptions of their relations with their wives, giving the impression that their marriages were not as strong as those of the high integrity executives. One of the low integrity executives lived in a completely different geographical region than his wife and children. He complained that his wife failed to function as he had initially hoped she would, to organize and regulate his life. Two of the low integrity executives had affairs with women who reported to them at work, and one of these two also had two households, with a wife-like woman and children in each. (It is hard to know the family dynamics because I never interview spouses or children. The role that families play in an executive’s life could be an area for further research. Nevertheless, indications from this study suggest that integrity is an integral part of personality structure and as such will likely appear in both work and family arenas.)
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Leslie Pratch, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist from the Northwestern Medical School with an M.B.A. in Strategy and Finance from Chicago Booth and a B.A. in Religion from Williams College. She works with boards of directors of public companies as well as private equity investors to assess and develop executives. She can be reached at (312) 464-7919 or leslie@pratchco.com or www.pratchco.com.
