Integrity as a System Property

A derived governance lens explaining how authority, accountability, and information alignment produces integrity and outcomes under system stress.

A derived lens from the Systems Integrity Cascade

Institute for Systems Integrity

What this is

This framework expresses a core principle of systems integrity:

Integrity is an emergent property of how authority, accountability, and information are aligned under real operating conditions.

In complex systems, outcomes do not primarily reflect individual intent or moral character. They emerge from how governance, decision rights, and visibility are designed to operate under pressure.

This lens is derived from the Systems Integrity Cascade and is intended to support boards, regulators, and institutional leaders in diagnosing why integrity holds — or collapses — in practice.

The Integrity Alignment Lens

Authority + Accountability + Information → Outcomes

Integrity is sustained when these three elements reinforce one another.
When they are misaligned, even capable and ethical people are structurally constrained — and outcomes degrade.

The three alignment domains

Authority

Who has the power to decide, act, and allocate resources?

Under system stress, authority often concentrates or shifts informally. People may be expected to deliver outcomes without having the authority to change the conditions that produce them.

Accountability

Who is held responsible for outcomes?

Accountability frequently operates retrospectively, focusing on individuals after harm occurs. When accountability is not matched with authority and information, it becomes punitive rather than corrective.

Information

What is visible, reported, and escalated?

System stress distorts visibility. Weak signals are filtered out. Reporting compresses complexity. Decision-makers receive partial or delayed versions of reality.

Integrity as an emergent property

Integrity does not arise from any one of these elements alone.

It emerges from their interaction.

When:

Authority exists without accountability
Accountability exists without authority
Information exists without escalation

Systems create conditions where even ethical actors are structurally constrained.

Outcomes then reflect system design, not individual virtue.

Relationship to the Systems Integrity Cascade

This lens is a derived view of the Systems Integrity Cascade

The Cascade explains how:

System conditions shape decision integrity
governance mediates visibility
Failure dynamics normalise drift
outcomes emerge over time

The Integrity Alignment Lens explains why those outcomes occur when alignment breaks.

Together, they form a coherent governance architecture.

Applied in

Integrity Is a System Property (to follow)
Why Oversight Fails Under Pressure
Decision-Making Under System Stress

Citation

Institute for Systems Integrity (2026).
Integrity as a System Property: Authority + Accountability + Information → Outcomes.
Derived from the Systems Integrity Cascade.
systemsintergrity.org