Leading a Healthier Company: Advancing a Public Health Model of Ethics and Compliance

This article advances a public health model of ethics and compliance. It argues that corporate leaders should draw from the successful lessons of public health to promote ethical behavior more effectively in their companies. With its attention to data-driven risk mitigation and behaviorally cognizant processes, a public health model can move compliance from the faulty assumption on which it is based, i.e., that organizational wrongdoing can be deterred solely through appeals to the rational decision-making processes of employees, to a more accurate understanding of the situational and social influences that foster noncompliance. The article supports its thesis in three parts. It begins by explaining the evolution of compliance and its transition from overly legalistic to behaviorally aware. Next it draws on behavioral ethics and network research to make the connection between public health and compliance. Third, it explores how corporate leaders can meld the insights from these two disciplines, offering a new way of approaching ethics and compliance that is focused on behavioral ethics conduct risk and the practical application of behavioral science within the firm—the best way to improve the legal, ethical, and financial health of companies.