Is Less More? Field Evidence on the Impact of Anti-bribery Policies on Employee Knowledge and Corrupt Behavior

60 Pages Posted: 24 Oct 2022 Last revised: 6 Apr 2023

See all articles by Nils Köbis

Nils Köbis

Max Planck Institute for Human Development - Center for Humans and Machines

Sharon Oded

Rotterdam Institute of Law and Economics

Anne Leonore de Bruijn

University of Amsterdam - Faculty of Law

Shuyu Huang

University of Amsterdam

Benjamin van Rooij

University of California, Irvine School of Law; University of Amsterdam - Faculty of Law

Date Written: April 6, 2023

Abstract

Companies increasingly adopt internal norms to enhance compliance with legal rules. However, the rapid growth in volume and complexity of such internal rules may obstruct employee knowledge and understanding of such internal rules, and therefore also their compliance. The present study seeks to understand whether shorter and more accessible formats of internal company norms will yield better knowledge and understanding of such norms. The study consists of an extensive online field experiment randomly assigning 1,235 employees of an international technology company to four treatments. In the Long Policy treatment, employees received a 19-page traditional policy written in standard legalese language. The Short Policy treatment entailed a shortened 4-page version of this classic policy, and in the Infographic treatment, employees received an illustrated overview of the essential rules on a single page. A fourth group received no policy and served as a Control treatment. After reading the policy, employees completed several measures assessing their rule knowledge, perceived social norms and played an incentivized bribery game. We find that a) none of the types of policies presented improves rule knowledge or reduces corrupt behavior compared to the control treatment, and b) no differences exist between the policies in influencing rules knowledge or reducing corrupt behavior. Instead, we find robust evidence indicating that people form their beliefs about corporate norms and decide how to behave in situations presenting high-corruption risk based on what they consider to be the norm. The paper discusses its implications for existing literature on codes of conduct and internal norms, on ethics training, as well as on legal knowledge development.

Keywords: Code of conduct; field experiments; bribery; anti-corruption; behavioral science

Suggested Citation

Köbis, Nils and Oded, Sharon and de Bruijn, Anne Leonore and Huang, Shuyu and van Rooij, Benjamin and van Rooij, Benjamin, Is Less More? Field Evidence on the Impact of Anti-bribery Policies on Employee Knowledge and Corrupt Behavior (April 6, 2023). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4255148 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4255148

Nils Köbis (Contact Author)

Max Planck Institute for Human Development - Center for Humans and Machines ( email )

Berlin
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/person/107772

Sharon Oded

Rotterdam Institute of Law and Economics ( email )

Burgemeester Oudlaan 50
PO box 1738
Rotterdam, 3000 DR
Netherlands

Anne Leonore De Bruijn

University of Amsterdam - Faculty of Law ( email )

Amsterdam, 1018 WB
Netherlands

Shuyu Huang

University of Amsterdam

Spui 21
Amsterdam, 1018 WB
Netherlands

Benjamin Van Rooij

University of California, Irvine School of Law ( email )

401 E. Peltason Dr.
Ste. 1000
Irvine, CA 92697-1000
United States

University of Amsterdam - Faculty of Law ( email )

Amsterdam, 1018 WB
Netherlands

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