Samenvatting

Over the years, compliance has come to be closely associated with integrity. Originally, compliance foremost had been understood as abiding by (financial) law and regulation as a prerequisite to pursuing an organization’s operational goals. In response to societal developments and corruption scandals this perspective gradually has shifted. Despite the increased importance and consecutive academic attention of the seemingly self-evident relationship between compliance and integrity, a dedicated analysis of this relationship is still lacking. Such an analysis not only will increase our theoretical understanding of the underlying concepts and how they evoke each other, but practically its insights may also help to increase the effectiveness of managing compliance and integrity within organizations. This contribution, therefore, conducts a conceptual analysis into the relationship between compliance and integrity. First, the meaning of compliance and integrity as individual concepts is discussed, followed by a comparison of the two concepts. The commonalities and differences that come to the fore then act as a stepping stone to unpack the various ways the concepts of compliance and integrity invoke each other. Based on this discussion a basic analytic framework is drawn up that summarizes the different valuations of the relationship between compliance and integrity. To illustrate their practical relevance, the different valuations depicted by the framework are illustrated with an example drawn from the defence industry. It concludes by discussing the implications of the analysis and suggesting some possible routes for further research.