The 1991 Federal Sentencing Guidelines tor Organizations arc credited with the rapid spread of eihics and compliance offices in organizations. The Guidelines laid out the now well-known "seven steps" for an effective ethics and compliance program. To induce companies to implement the seven steps, [he Guidelines offered a carrot and a stick. Companies with effective ethics and compliance programs can reduce fines by up to 95%. Those without effective programs can have lines increased by up to 400%. As a result, organizations created ethics and compliance offices to reduce the legal liability of the organization. As the number of ethics officers giew, the development of professional organizations such as the Ethics Olficers Association and the Fellows Program at the Fthies Resource Center followed. An interesting dichotomy developed between what ethics and compliance officers did at work and the programmatic emphasis of these new professional organizations.
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