A narrative analysis of the justifications and excuses of serious employee fraud offenders

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Andon, Paul; Free, Clinton
• 署名单位: University of New South Wales Sydney; University of Sydney
• 刊物名称: CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNTING RESEARCH
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0823-9150
• DOI: 10.1111/1911-3846.12985
• 发表日期: 2025
• 页码: 7-38
• 关键词: accounts; neutralization; VOCABULARIES; motivation; triangle; ORGANIZATIONS; CONSTRUCTION; WORKPLACE; deviance; BUSINESS

摘要

Most fraud research in accounting has focused on controls rather than offenders' subjective experience, meaning that our understanding of motive in fraud (defined as linguistic devices employed to justify, interpret, or excuse actions) remains underexplored. This is particularly the case for employee fraud, which has been largely neglected relative to top management fraud or financial statement fraud. To provide a richer understanding of how fraud offenders make sense of their offending, we interviewed 30 serious employee fraud offenders to better investigate their typal vocabularies of motive. We focus on holistic narrative accounts to provide insights into the common justifications and excuses presented by employee fraud offenders. We develop a taxonomy of narrative constructions based on the explanatory locus of the accounts offered by offenders. We identify three common justifications, (1) inconsequentiality motives, (2) permission motives, and (3) unfair treatment motives, and three common excuses, (4) personal crisis motives, (5) addiction motives, and (6) appeasement motives. We draw implications for researching fraud, organizational control, and ethics in accounting education. Analyse narrative des justifications et des excuses des employ & eacute;s reconnus coupables de fraudes gravesLes recherches en comptabilit & eacute; se sont principalement concentr & eacute;es sur les contr & ocirc;les plut & ocirc;t que sur l'exp & eacute;rience subjective des fraudeurs. Ainsi, notre compr & eacute;hension des motifs de la fraude, qui correspondent aux proc & eacute;d & eacute;s linguistiques utilis & eacute;s pour justifier, interpr & eacute;ter ou excuser des actions, est incompl & egrave;te. En particulier, la fraude commise par les employ & eacute;s a souvent & eacute;t & eacute; n & eacute;glig & eacute;e par rapport & agrave; la fraude commise par les cadres sup & eacute;rieurs ou aux anomalies des & eacute;tats financiers. Afin de mieux comprendre comment les fraudeurs donnent un sens & agrave; leurs actes r & eacute;pr & eacute;hensibles, les auteurs ont interrog & eacute; 30 employ & eacute;s reconnus coupables de fraudes graves afin d'analyser en d & eacute;tail le vocabulaire utilis & eacute; pour expliquer leurs motifs. Les auteurs mettent l'accent sur les r & eacute;cits narratifs holistiques pour mettre en lumi & egrave;re les justifications et les excuses couramment avanc & eacute;es par les employ & eacute;s reconnus coupables de fraudes. Ils & eacute;tablissent une classification des constructions narratives bas & eacute;e sur la mani & egrave;re dont les fraudeurs pr & eacute;sentent le locus explicatif de leurs r & eacute;cits. Trois justifications fr & eacute;quentes sont identifi & eacute;es: les motifs li & eacute;s (1) & agrave; l'incons & eacute;quence, (2) & agrave; la permission, et (3) au traitement injuste, ainsi que trois excuses communes, soit les motifs li & eacute;s (4) & agrave; la crise personnelle, (5) & agrave; la d & eacute;pendance, et (6) & agrave; l'apaisement. Les auteurs en d & eacute;gagent des implications pour la recherche sur la fraude, le contr & ocirc;le organisationnel et l'& eacute;thique dans l'enseignement de la comptabilit & eacute;.