There Is No Quick Fix: Compliance Officers’ Views on Organizational Behavioral Change

Abstract Major scandals show the damage that organizational misconduct can do to society. Compliance officers play a crucial role in mitigating organizational misconduct. There is extensive empirical research on how such misconduct can effectively be prevented. However, little is known about compliance officers’ experiential knowledge and how this aligns with these scientific findings. Based on semi-structured interviews with compliance officers, this paper analyzes their experiential knowledge and its alignment with empirical research on a conceptual level and, moreover, on a substantive level by zooming in on two concepts: first, role modeling and leadership, and second, sanctions. It shows that none of the interviewed compliance officers believed in a quick fix for compliance: all identified a combination of concepts at play in mitigating misconduct. The alignment on a conceptual level was broad as there was much overlap between the concepts distinguished by compliance officers and concepts studied in empirical research. The alignment on a substantive level was more superficial, however. Compliance officers only minimally elaborated on how they thought the concepts they identified may affect behavior. This has received more attention in empirical research. These insights provide a first understanding of what compliance officers believe are proper methods to mitigate organizational misconduct and how their ideas align with social scientific findings.