Langevoort, Donald C. --- "Behavioral ethics, behavioral compliance" [2018] ELECD 260; in Arlen, Jennifer (ed), "Research Handbook on Corporate Crime and Financial Misdealing" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2018) 263

Book Title: Research Handbook on Corporate Crime and Financial Misdealing

Editor(s): Arlen, Jennifer

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN: 9781783474462

Section: Chapter 11

Section Title: Behavioral ethics, behavioral compliance

Author(s): Langevoort, Donald C.

Number of pages: 19

Abstract/Description:

Research in psychology and organizational behavior under the heading of “behavioral ethics” is growing rapidly, offering new insights into how people (individually and in groups) choose whether to comply with legal and ethical norms. In legal scholarship, a robust literature is emerging on the subject organizational compliance, as public enforcers become more insistent that corporations build and maintain state-of-the-art systems. This chapter joins these two bodies of research, demonstrating the potential payoffs—and challenges—in using a behavioral frame of reference to assess compliance risks, design appropriate interventions, and communicate more effectively about both law and ethics with corporate managers and other employees. Just as compliance requires good economics skills, it requires psychological savvy as well, to help predict how incentives and compliance messages will be processed, construed and acted upon in the field.