Corporate boards are more concerned than ever about having a culture of compliance and helping their firms avoid scandal. To that end, directors want to have more conversations with ethics and compliance officers and they want those officers to have bigger voices to bring attention to potential issues. 

That’s according to a new report based on in-depth interviews with 40 directors for nearly 80 public companies, including The Coca-Cola Co., Halliburton Co., The Walt Disney Co., Wells Fargo & Co., HP Inc., United Airlines Inc. and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Ten of the directors in the study are current or former chief ethics and compliance officers.