Companies may need to examine employees by age group to find out how likely some workers might be to ditch compliance to complete tasks.

A recent survey published in May by ethics and compliance specialist LRN Corporation found that nearly a quarter (23 percent) of employees around the world thought it was acceptable to break the rules to get the job done.

Neil Hodge is a freelance business journalist and photographer based in Nottingham, United Kingdom. He writes on insurance and risk management, corporate governance, internal audit, compliance, and legal...