Investigating Public Integrity in Macbeth

Abstract

Managing investigations of official misconduct committed by one’s superiors is a particularly fundamental problem of administrative ethics. Frequently, such investigations include testing the integrity of the leader’s senior followers, including one’s closest colleagues. Shakespeare’s Macbeth dramatizes the situation confronting senior executives who are convinced that their leader is corruptly abusing power but are uncertain how far this corruption has reached down into their own ranks. Macbeth’s opponents have to work out ways of testing the integrity of those who claim to be on their side. Shakespeare’s play includes a pioneering study of “integrity-testing” that remains relevant and instructive today.