Gartner Survey Shows a Strong Ethical Culture Isn’t Enough to Stop Noncompliance

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

According to a Gartner survey of 1,012 employees in December 2023, uncertainty is the most experienced situation leading to employee noncompliance. In the survey, 87% of respondents said they faced situations where they didn’t know how to comply in the last 12 months, followed by 77% of respondents who experienced situations of rationalization 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 noncompliance: uncertainty,” said Chris Audet, Chief of Research in the Gartner for Legal, Risk & Compliance Leaders practice.

The study revealed that 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 rationalization and malice, 1.5x and 1.4x respectively when compared to quality standards. Compliance culture therefore remains an important part of efforts to improve employee behavior (see Figure 1).