Ethical organisational cultures have a limited impact on addressing uncertainty about how to be compliant, according to a survey carried out by Gartner.

There are three primary situations that lead to non-compliance: Situations of uncertainty (not understanding how to comply), rationalisation (thinking that non-compliance is not wrong in a certain context), and malice (not complying despite knowing it is wrong).

Uncertainty is the most experienced situation leading to employee non-compliance, the study suggests. Some 87% of respondents said that in the last 12 months they faced situations where they did not know how to comply, followed by 77% of respondents who experienced situations of rationalisation and 40% experiencing situations of malice.

“Compliance culture is a valuable part of mitigating misconduct, but it isn’t the best way to address the most common situation leading to employee non-compliance: uncertainty,” said Chris Audet, chief of research in the Legal, Risk and Compliance Leaders practice at Gartner.

On the other hand, improved quality standards – the design of policies, training, communications, and tools – has over double the impact of compliance culture on reducing uncertainty.

Compliance culture has a greater impact on reducing situations of rationalisation and malice, 1.5x and 1.4x respectively when compared with quality standards. Compliance culture therefore remains an important part of efforts to improve employee behaviour. Given that many compliance functions already tend to prioritise compliance culture, however, and that situations of uncertainty are the most common driver of non-compliance, the report's authors posit that focusing on quality standards will yield better overall improvements in employee compliance.

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