“…The underlying motivation to embezzle according to Cressey was related to status maintenance or status enhancement. Although many scholars in the organizational sciences cite Cres-sey's work (e.g., Ashforth and Anand, 2003;Gottfredson and Hirschi, 1990;Hallier and Forbes, 2004;Vardi and Weitz, 2004), and although it also receives much attention in more popular work (e.g., Albrecht et al, 1984;Comer, 1985;Davies, 2000;Wells, 2004), his theory has hardly been developed further. In this paper Cressey's theory is developed further in that downward organizational spirals are identified within the three factors that he proposed.…”