Melbourne Accounting Research Seminar - Associate Professor Pamela Murphy

Melbourne Accounting Research Seminars
Melbourne Accounting Research Seminars

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Martin Weisner

martin.weisner@unimelb.edu.au

T: +61 3 8344 6556

  • Melbourne Accounting Research Seminar

Associate Professor Pamela Murphy from Queens University Canada will present a MARS seminar.

Topic: Layers of Accountability: The Influential Mechanisms that Push Individuals to Participate in Group Fraud or Support their Resistance

Abstract: We analyze 38 stories of group fraud, half from the perspective of someone who committed group fraud and half from the perspective of someone who resisted pressure to join group fraud. Our goal is to better understand the mechanisms that helped push people to join group fraud and those that helped them resist. We use the theoretical lens of accountability theory to decompose these mechanisms into three layers: (1) individual accountability, (2) organizational accountability, and (3) external accountability. Results suggest that feelings of self-accountability are most influential in resisting fraud, and, surprisingly, these feelings also play a role in pushing some toward fraud. At the organizational level, we find that organizational culture plays the biggest role in pushing employees toward fraud. Culture can combine with the reward system to push individuals toward fraud and can combine with authority and lines of responsibility to help employees resist fraud. Results also suggest that mentorship, both within and outside the organization, influences decisions to participate in fraud, especially by helping some people resist fraud. We discuss implications for organizations.

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