Lessons in empowerment: honesty is essential for trust.

In a previous editorial (Scanes, 2010a), I discussed the importance of strategic planning and strategic doing in moving an organization to the next level and the alternative approaches of not strategic planning or doing so in a nonparticipatory manner or with no commitment to make the necessary changes (i.e., making the vision operational). This editorial discusses the issue of honesty. In my opinion, honesty is essential to engender trust, and trust is critical to so much of what we do. Abraham Lincoln said that, “If you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow citizens, you can never regain their respect and esteem. It is true that you may fool all of the people some of the time; you can even fool some of the people all of the time; but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.” This can be adapted in several ways. In the arena of research, we can say with confidence that if you once forfeit the confidence of your fellow research scientists, you can never regain their respect and esteem. When a researcher is found to have committed scientific fraud or research misconduct (both forms of dishonesty), they are never trusted again. The usual examples of this are the following: