Corporate Compliance Programs and Behavioral Ethics

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K01883
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 07080:Business administration-related
• Research Institution: Saitama University
• Principal Investigator: MIZUMURA Norihiro 埼玉大学, 人文社会科学研究科, 教授 (50375581)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 意図せぬ不正 / コンプライアンスの死角 / 行動意思決定論

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Japanese companies are putting a great deal of energy into efforts to improve their ethicality and have established systems to promote corporate compliance program: installing codes of ethics, corporate ethics and legal compliance program, ethics helpline, and ethics training. Despite all this effort, observed illegal/unethical behavior in the workplace is on the rise.

This research focuses on the question why company employees intentionally or unintentionally make illegal/unethical choice in the workplaces, and behavioral ethics within organizations. Behavioral ethics is defined as “the study of systematic and predictable ways in which individuals make ethical decisions and judge the ethical decisions of others when these decisions are at odds with intuition and the benefits of the broader society”. The purpose of this research is to review recent research on behavioral ethics and attempt to provide a portrait of the current state of the field.

Free Research Field

企業倫理学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究の学術的意義は、「意図せぬ不正」を働く組織人の倫理観の揺らぎや心理変容のプロセスを学際的なアプローチで掘り下げて分析した「行動倫理学」の知見と研究の成果を基に現代の経営に埋め込まれたコンプライアンスの制度の運用上の課題を理論的に浮き彫りにしたことである。また、本研究がスポットライトを当てた「コンプライアンス・プログラムの形骸化」と「社内や職場における意図せぬ不正」については、現代日本の企業社会が否が応でも向き合わざるを得ない課題となっているため、本研究の内容もまた時代と社会からの要請に適合しているといえる。