Impact of Compliance Programs on Organizational Psychology

Abstract

An ethics and compliance program may impact employee role identity, hence influencing the psychology of the said organization. Ethics and compliance programs can be implemented differently by top managers. As stipulated, different orientations of compliance programs have different outcomes when it comes to employee responses. If an ethics and compliance program promotes a sense of shared responsibility and seems to suggest that it exists for the purpose of aiding employees to complete their tasks effectively, it can give the notion that the employees are supported by the organization. By promoting the idea of shared values within an organization, compliance, and ethical programs craft the expectations and norms within the said organization (Weaver & Treviño, 1999: p. 319). According to theorists of social identity, it is these expectations that give employees a picture of the role they are expected to play within the organization. Apart from the role employees learn they are expected to play in an organization, interactions with others give them a sense of identity. Interactions with others within the organization as stipulated in ethics and compliance program do not just serve to point out what is expected of people within the organization, but also contributes to the sense of self employees have. Within organizations, values exist, most of which are centered around profit-making and the identity of people as profit-making managers. However, for an organization with a well-developed compliance program in place, there will be social interactions which will help define the expectation of each employee and will help them aspire to a set of common values throughout the organization (Weaver & Treviño, 1999: p. 319). Therefore, the purpose of having shared values among the employees is to create role identities for employees within the organization. Compliance programs that take this approach aim at increasing salience of employees’ ethical identities. In such an organization, even if one employee has a sense of self that values high commitment to ethics, a focus on the values of the organization will help increase salience (Weaver & Treviño, 1999: p. 320). Therefore, this proves that indeed ethics and compliance programs do have an influence on employee behavior, attitudes, values, and identities, hence influencing organizational psychology.