Global Behavioral Compliance

Abstract

This chapter assesses the current state of behavioral compliance, expressing support for the behavioral approach but arguing that some of the enthusiasm for it as producing a great step forward in the efficacy of corporate compliance is unrealistic. Though findings have contributed to a better sense of “what works” in compliance, this is slow-going, and the behavioral insights often seem to do better at helping understand why compliance sometimes fails—notwithstanding the significant resources directed toward that task—than establishing a clear roadmap toward getting things right. The problem is that the academic roadmap requires what to businesspeople seem like radical changes in beliefs, cultures, and practices. This new gospel has won relatively few converts in the hyper-competitive global economy. In that sense, the embrace of behavioral compliance is half-hearted and incomplete. The chapter reviews the subject of behavioral compliance, its academic support, and the promise and pitfalls going forward of adopting a more nuanced view of human nature in the compliance setting.