In his ‘how-to’ book on compliance in financial Services in the UK, experienced compliance manager Andrew Newton poses the central dilemma that faces all compliance (and other self-regulation) staff:

There are at least two competing visions of the work of compliance functions in this passage, two different ideas of where the ultimate loyalty of self-regulation professionals lies (to employer, or to regulators and external social values), and two potential modus operandi for compliance work (a ‘harmonizing’ role and a ‘political’ role).

Both the new regulatory State, and corporate top management, will tend to abdicate responsibility for reconciling the practice of business with social and legal responsibility to self-regulation functions. This chapter argues that self-regulation staff should not absorb and deflect conflict. Rather, they should use conflict to facilitate self-criticism, internal deliberation about integrity, and internal-external dialogue with and consideration of ‘stakeholder’ views by internal players.