Concepts — Institute for Systems Integrity (ISI)

Canonical definitions of system integrity, governance failure under stress, compliance versus integrity, and related concepts used across ISI research, frameworks, and publications.

Foundations for understanding system integrity and governance failure

The Institute for Systems Integrity defines concepts that are often discussed loosely but rarely examined as system properties.
These pages provide clear, stable definitions used across ISI research, frameworks, and publications.

They are designed to be referenced — by practitioners, boards, regulators, and decision-makers — when clarity matters.

Section 1 — Concept Cards

System Integrity

Definition:
The capacity of an organisation to maintain safe, lawful, and ethical decision-making under sustained stress.

Governance Failure Under Stress

Definition:
The degradation of decision quality and oversight as pressure increases, despite formal governance structures remaining in place.

Compliance vs Integrity
Definition:
Compliance measures rule adherence; integrity measures decision reliability. The two diverge under stress.

Integrity as a System Property
Definition:
The principle that integrity emerges from system design — not individual virtue — is shaped by incentives, information flow, and accountability.

Resilience as Risk Transfer
Definition:
A condition where system failures are absorbed by individuals through increased workload, emotional labour, or personal risk.

Integrity Failure Taxonomy

Definition

An integrity failure taxonomy is a structured classification of recurring patterns through which systems lose decision integrity over time.It identifies system-level failure modes arising from governance design, incentives, and information flows rather than individual misconduct alone.

Section 2 — How These Concepts Are Used

Heading:
How ISI uses these concepts

These definitions are not theoretical abstractions. They are used to:

Diagnose governance and integrity failure across sectors
Design and test ISI frameworks
Analyse policy, organisational risk, and system stress
Support clearer board-level decision-making

Each concept is treated as a reference point, not a rhetorical device.

Section 3 — Relationship to Frameworks

Heading:
From concepts to frameworks

Copy:
Frameworks explain how it unfolds and where intervention is possible.

Links

Governance Control Loop →
Integrity Failure Modes →
System Stress & Decision Distortion →

This reinforces intellectual hierarchy:

Concepts → Frameworks → Publications

Section 4 — Citation & Use

Heading:
Citation and use

Copy:

© 2026 Institute for Systems Integrity. All rights reserved
ISI concepts may be quoted or referenced with attribution.
Where concepts are applied in policy, governance, or research contexts, clear attribution supports consistency and shared understanding.