This work discusses the challenge for employees in organizations to comply with rules. Using ethics with economic methods, the work addresses the basic conflict in ethics: self-interest versus morality. The metaphor of a game serves as a means of approaching the problem: only shared rules of the game constitute a game, structure the moves, and establish mutual reliability. However, the second-order dilemma reveals that, in the concrete situations of everyday life, employees must also mutually acknowledge the applicable rules (rules of the game) in order for those rules to establish mutual reliability. This acknowledgment, however, comes at a price—that is, it requires an “investment.” The foundation for such investments is a shared understanding of the game. For successful compliance management, this means that the rule-based approach (rules of the game) must be complemented by a value-based approach (shared understanding of the game).

Finally, this work establishes the following connection between compliance management and corporate success: employees bear a responsibility for the game to acknowledge the rules and bear the costs associated with them. This ensures the game’s continued existence. Only in this way can employees fulfill their responsibility within the game to make profits.

Stephan Gebauer completed his doctoral study under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Andreas Suchanek at the Dr. Werner Jackstädt Chair of Economic and Business Ethics at HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management and the Wittenberg Center for Global Ethics. His primary research and practice focus is on corporate compliance and business ethics in organizations.