The concept of integrity in the organization of Royal Malaysian Police: A preliminary study

Integrity is one of the most important characteristics of an organizational culture that can ensure service quality and excellence in the organisation’s system. The Royal Malaysian Police (RMP) is no exemption to this requirement as are other law enforcement agencies in the country. To its credit the RMP have been trying to improve and strengthen the integrity of police personnel in order to meet the security and law enforcement needs of the state and the society. However, according to a report issued by the Public Complaints Bureau (2014) and the Enforcement Agency Integrity Commission (2014) the Malaysian police obtained a large number of complaints from the public regarding the deterioration in their service presentation system and thus their integrity. This study examined two methods of integrity enhancement among members of the RMP, namely, the organisational culture , and individual integrity . The objective was to find out which of the two factors did precipitate the deterioration of police integrity. Primary data were gathered from structured questionnaires and interviews with 760 RMP members and officers in Perak State. The findings showed that despite conflicting opinions among scholars as to which factors really determined police intergrity, the organizational culture seems to be more relevant in explaining the intergrity problems in the RMP as it showed a great influence on the police attitudes and behaviour .