Ethics and compliance committees of corporate boards: Rationale, domain, and skill sets of members

Abstract

The central issues examined in this article are the extent to which U.S. corporate boards have established ethics and compliance committees and the underlying reasons accounting for the development of such committees. The reasons include the evolving legal environment of business, including regulatory compliance responsibilities, and the expanding ethical responsibilities. This paper then examines the skill set of members of ethics and compliance committees and finds they have a different profile from members of either audit committees or public responsibility committees and a profile that seems suitable to their responsibilities. In that sense, they might provide a model for other companies that form ethics and compliance committees in the future.