The Impact of Authority on Reporting Behavior, Rationalization and Affect

Mayhew, Brian W.; Murphy, Pamela R.

doi:10.1111/1911-3846.12037

Cited by 72 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Here, the emphasis is on individuals' crime propensities and the moral norms of the financial setting, which may encourage or discourage breaking the rules governing the markets when acting on a particular motivation. As the forgoing analysis revealed, the most noteworthy aspects of the Cattles fraud and LIBOR market manipulation is not so much that they exposed the seedy underbelly of the financial markets, but that also they identified the calculative practices that were at play in various conventional techniques and scenarios (Murphy & Dacin, 2011;Mayhew & Murphy, 2014). In situations where individuals were confronted with opportunities to violate rules governing the industry, executives and traders who were experiencing financial loss or were in losing positions, chose action alternatives that were criminogenic.…”

Section: Discussion and Concluding Commentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theorizing Financial Crimes as Moral Actions

Lokanan

2017

European Accounting Review

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Abstract:The paper maintains that all acts of financial crimes can be explained within a general theory of moral action and analyzed as such. In this regard, the paper presents such a theorySituational Action Theory (SAT) -and argues that acts of financial crimes result from a perception-choice process involving rational deliberation and experimental habituation, themselves the outcomes of interactions between individuals and their environments. To examine this argument, the paper draws on two recent high profile fraud cases to critically discuss the extent to which these crimes should be meaningfully and innovatively analysed as moral actions and the moral context in which they occur. The findings indicate that the feature most relevant to a criminogenic is its moral context in relation to the opportunities and frictions that it generates. As such, environmental factors along with psychosocial processes of moral education become particularly important in the explanation of why certain moral contexts emerge in particular kinds of settings at a particular point in time. In this regard, SAT can be used as a powerful overarching framework to gain a more comprehensive understanding of peoples' choice processes to breach moral rules and devise effective crime prevention strategies to combat fraud.

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Section: Discussion and Concluding Commentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theorizing Financial Crimes as Moral Actions

Lokanan

2017

European Accounting Review

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“…Thus when their actions cause harm to others, they can feel relatively free of guilt." So, for instance, people say, "I felt pressured by the boss" (Mayhew and Murphy 2014), "I was made to do it by my boss" (Moore 2008), or "I felt unduly pressured by top management and supervisors" (Clinard 1983).…”

Section: Blaming the Limited Choicementioning

confidence: 99%

A Model of Neutralization Techniques

2018

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Neutralizations are important explanations for the rise and persistence of deviant behavior. We can find many different and overlapping techniques of neutralizations in the literature, which may be a reason for inconsistent research findings on the use and influence of neutralization techniques. Therefore, by following both a deductive and an inductive approach, this article develops a model that covers these techniques in a logical way. This is a novel approach in studying neutralization techniques. We distinguish four categories of neutralizations: distorting the facts, negating the norm, blaming the circumstances, and hiding behind oneself. Based on a broad inventory of neutralizations that are identified in the literaturesomething that has not been done beforewe operationalized each of the four categories into three techniques, each of which consists of five subtechniques. The resulting model aims to reduce the risk of arbitrariness in the selection of techniques for empirical research and thereby facilitates more consistent future research findings. The model also aims to help better understand how neutralizations work.CONTACT Muel Kaptein mkaptein@rsm.nl Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/udbh.

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“…Human beings tend to be weak when confronted with obstinate authority (Alzola, 2012). When a powerful person in a position of authority suggests corrupt activity, a toxic combination of dependency, projection, and denial makes subordinates significantly likely to obey (Mayhew & Murphy, 2014). Honest employees can be seduced into corruption through subtle suggestions ; the suggestion to "do whatever it takes" leaves no uncertainty that it may or even should include corrupt actions (Gabriel, 1998).…”

Section: Unconscious Motive 1-acquittal Of Personal Accountabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Psychological pressure originates from egocentric desires to possess more than one can afford for reasons of personal prestige and opulent lifestyles (Dellaportas, 2013). Rationalized corruption is a crime of entitlement, committed by someone who cannot fathom that he or she is part of a wider community, with the phantasy that he or she is elevated to levels above the rest of society and more deserving than others (Mayhew & Murphy, 2014). There's a well-known mockery that the difference between god and any narcissist is that god doesn't think he is the narcissist (Stein, 2013).…”

Section: Unconscious Motive 4-narcissistic Indemnitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“The Devil Made Me Do It!” An Inquiry Into the Unconscious “Devils Within” of Rationalized Corruption

Klerk

2017

Journal of Management Inquiry

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Individuals involved in corruption often offer rationalizations to convince themselves and others that they are not corrupt, and that their acts are justified and acceptable. However, to confine the dynamic process of mobilizing rationalizations to this purpose is too restrictive. Drawing on psychoanalytic theory, it is argued that an unconscious urge for rationalizations develops from a need to find psychological restitution and atonement, achieved only through self-convincing beliefs of acquittal. Six unconscious motives are identified as explanations how offenders believe that rationalizations acquit them from guilt, indemnify them, or redeem the corruption. These motives represent metaphorical devils that can spawn corruption in otherwise law-abiding citizens with moral intentions. Conceptualizations bring the unconscious dynamics or rationalized corruption into consciousness, where it can be studied and worked with. This makes an important contribution toward enabling managers to be more in control of rationalized corruption, both in themselves and elsewhere in the organization.

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The Impact of Authority on Reporting Behavior, Rationalization and Affect

Cited by 72 publications

References 39 publications

Theorizing Financial Crimes as Moral Actions

Theorizing Financial Crimes as Moral Actions

A Model of Neutralization Techniques

“The Devil Made Me Do It!” An Inquiry Into the Unconscious “Devils Within” of Rationalized Corruption

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