How Can a Corporate (Compliance) Culture Be Described and Effectively Measured?

Abstract

In July 2016, the FRC published a report on corporate culture and the role of boards (see below). This report serves as an important complement to respective provisionsof UK Corporate Governance Code – a code which is perceived as a best practice manual for building and maintaining a good level of corporate governance and is therefore adapted by many European lawmakers and regulators. This regulation puts an enhanced emphasis on ‘corporate (compliance) culture’ as it, among others, states that: ‘Boards should devote sufficient resource to evaluating culture and consider how they report on it.’ What shall, however, be understood by this term? How can such a term be defined, measured and reported on? The aim of the presented discussion paper is to help answering those theoretical questions, as well as to propose a reliable ‘culture measurement tool’ which could be effectively used in nowadays business practice.