Games of Engagement: Postures Within the Regulatory Community*

This paper seeks to advance understanding of compliance through identifying the constituent elements of four empirically derived postures of regulatees: resistance and disengagement (associated with non-compliance), and managerial accommodation and capture (associated with compliance) (V. Braith-waite et al. 1994). The nature of these postures is investigated through two theoretical frameworks, Meidinger's (1987) notion of regulatory culture (and the construct of social bonds) and Merton's (1968) modes of adaptation (and the construct of commitments to institutional goals and means). Social bonds and commitments to goals and means are important for explaining resistance, disengagement and managerial accommodation. In the case of capture of the regulatees, social bonds are more important than commitments to goals and means. The findings counsel regulatory agencies to establish trust and respect in the regulatee-regulator relationship.