An Examination of Factors Impacting Managerial Behavior towards Compliance Controls: Impact of the EPA Audit Policy

The United States established the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to
monitor and enforce compliance with environmental pollution standards through various
programs and policies. One such policy, the Audit Policy, allows companies to
voluntarily self-report violations to the Agency in exchange for elimination of certain
penalties. Despite the policy, firms still incur large environmental penalties, thus
indicating the need for better understanding of the policy. A necessary but not sufficient
condition for penalty relief under the Audit Policy requires discovery of violations by an
environmental audit or a compliance management system. This research explores the
option of discovery by a compliance management system and examines the motivation of
managers to invest in an environmental management system (EMS).
The theory of reasoned action (TRA) argues that attitude and subjective norms
precede intentions. I use this theory to investigate what factors cause a manager to invest in an environmental management system (EMS). Additionally, I examine whether
environmental attitude, tolerance for ambiguity and willful blindness are antecedents to
attitude towards an EMS. In this study, I develop and test a scale of the willful blindness
construct and measure its impact on managerial decision-making. The willful blindness
construct development produced a one-item measure. My results support all hypotheses
except for the predicted link between tolerance for ambiguity and attitude.