Overseeing a global internal investigation can be one of the most difficult and perilous jobs that compliance officers do.

Part of the challenge that comes with that job is setting the scope of the investigation at the outset. Set the scope too narrow and it could damage the company’s credibility with regulators down the road; too broad and it could waste time and money and create fears of a fishing expedition inside the organization.

Jaclyn Jaeger is a freelance contributor to Compliance Week after working for the company for 15 years. She writes on a wide variety of topics, including ethics and compliance, risk management, legal,...