Fides Quaerens Intellectum

The spirit of an organization is created from the top. 

The proof of the sincerity and seriousness of a management is uncompromising emphasis on integrity of character.  This, above all, has to be symbolized is management’s “people” decisions.  For it is character through which leadership is exercised; it is character that sets the example and is imitated.  Character is not something one can fool people about.  The people with whom a person works, and especially subordinates, know in a few weeks whether he or she has integrity or not.  They may forgive a person for a great deal; incompetence, ignorance, insecurity, or bad manners.  But they will not forgive a lack of integrity in that person.  Nor will they forgive higher management for choosing him.*

Peter Drucker, The Daily Drucker:  366 Days of Insight and Motivation for Getting the Right Things Done.