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Article
Publication date: 1 April 2019

Michel Dion

The purpose of this paper is to use Kierkegaard’s life-views (aesthetical, ethicist and religious life-views) for better understanding the way fraudsters are dealing with their…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to use Kierkegaard’s life-views (aesthetical, ethicist and religious life-views) for better understanding the way fraudsters are dealing with their ontic-existentiell guilt, while developing rationalization tactics.

Design/methodology/approach

Rationalization tactics make possible to neutralize moral discomfort about fraudulent practices. Endorsing Kierkegaard life-views actually unveils three basic patterns fraudsters could agree with (consciously or not): the focus for individualization processes, the ontic-existentiell quest and the attitude towards guilt. Each Kierkegaardian life-view has deepened this threefold pattern in a very different way.

Findings

The aesthetician life-view is so emphasizing immediacy and pleasure that it strengthens an amoral perspective. Fraudsters could easily adopt such life-view. The ethicist is so basically concerned with morality (distinction between good and evil) that he/she cannot consciously favour fraudulent practices. At best, fraudsters may be “would-be ethicists”. As long as they are unable to feel repentance, fraudsters will not be able to fully embrace the religious life-view. At best, they may be “would-be religious”.

Research limitations/implications

The way Kierkegaard’s life-views could put light on fraudsters’ rationalization tactics has not been empirically assessed. Empirical studies that would be focussed on such topics should deepen the relevance and meaning of fraudsters’ psychological, sociological, cultural and religious/spiritual traits.

Originality/value

The paper analyzes to what extent fraudsters could feel psychological guilt, as well as ontic-existentiell guilt, as it is grounded on ontological-existential guilt (guilt as an ontological category). Taking Kierkegaard’s life-views as reference pattern, it presents the implications of being oriented towards immediacy/pleasure (avoiding guilt, at any cost), towards freedom (being aware of one’s guilt) or towards the infinite (being fully aware of one’s guilt).

Details

Journal of Financial Crime, vol. 26 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1359-0790

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 July 2009

Tanja Rabl and Torsten M. Kühlmann

The literature states that rationalization strategies contribute to a spread of corruption in organizations. They are supposed to serve not only as post hoc justifications but…

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Abstract

Purpose

The literature states that rationalization strategies contribute to a spread of corruption in organizations. They are supposed to serve not only as post hoc justifications but also as ex ante determinants of corrupt behavior. This empirical study aims at challenging this theoretical assumption.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors gained empirical data in a business simulation game where participants had the opportunity to act corruptly. The sample included both university and high school students.

Findings

The results show that post hoc rationalizations primarily highlight the “positive” intention behind corrupt action. As relationships with important person‐based determinants of corruption are lacking, it is questionable whether rationalization strategies possess potential as ex ante determinants of corrupt behavior.

Research limitations/implications

The design of the study only assesses rationalization strategies post hoc. Therefore it does not allow for examining causal effects, only the investigation of relationships. Future research should aim at addressing this issue, including both ex ante and post hoc assessment of rationalization strategies.

Originality/value

The paper is a first attempt to examine empirically the function of rationalization strategies in the context of corruption in organizations.

Details

Cross Cultural Management: An International Journal, vol. 16 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1352-7606

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 2019

Omari Zuberi and Siasa Issa Mzenzi

The study aims to explore specific motivations, rationalizations and opportunities that are involved in the occurrences of both employee and management fraud in the context of an…

1056

Abstract

Purpose

The study aims to explore specific motivations, rationalizations and opportunities that are involved in the occurrences of both employee and management fraud in the context of an emerging African country, Tanzania. It builds and extends from the fraud triangle theory.

Design/methodology/approach

A survey was developed and administered to 114 participants who had witnessed, had examined or had been involved in fraud resolutions. The participants included fraud examiners, business managers and owners, victims, auditors, lawyers, and law enforcement agents. The data collected were analysed using descriptive analysis, principal component analysis and correlation analysis.

Findings

The results revealed six motivation factors that incentivize employees and managers to engage in fraudulent behaviours. These are business financial strain, social incentives and pressure, greed, operating problems, internal pressures and malevolent work environment. In addition, fraudsters rationalized their behaviour through five significant neutralization techniques identified as social weighting, transferring of blame, denial of injury, attitude and prior fraud history. Lastly, victim organisations were identified to have three main fraud opportunities: poor control environment, inadequate control activities and circumstances that allowed collusive behaviour among fraudsters.

Research limitations/implications

While the study attempted to explore the motivations, opportunities and rationalizations from the perspectives of the fraud-fighting professionals and witnesses, their views and suggestions might be different from the actual known fraudsters or incarcerated individuals.

Practical implications

Business organisations, fraud-fighting professionals and general community must understand the factors behind fraud occurrences, so proper measures may be taken to limit the frequency and amount of fraud losses.

Social implications

Creation of public awareness and dialogue necessary for the prevention, fighting and deterrence against all forms of fraud.

Originality/value

Despite the occurrences of many scams in both public and private sectors, limited studies exist as to the triggers behind fraud occurrences in the context of the developing countries and whether these triggers are the same as in other contexts. This study is an attempt to fill this gap.

Details

Journal of Financial Crime, vol. 26 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1359-0790

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1990

John Gammans

Narrates a local government review of property stock. Concludesthat the lessons learned may be of general use. Claims that criticalreview of building stock will expose assets…

Abstract

Narrates a local government review of property stock. Concludes that the lessons learned may be of general use. Claims that critical review of building stock will expose assets which could be better used thus satisfying the public and saving money.

Details

Property Management, vol. 8 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-7472

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1990

Nigel Piercy and William Giles

Challenges the validity of a traditional model of the stages usedin strategic marketing planning, arguing that the conventional modelignores the organizational and human factors…

Abstract

Challenges the validity of a traditional model of the stages used in strategic marketing planning, arguing that the conventional model ignores the organizational and human factors present in reality. Proposes an “illogical” model of strategic marketing planning derived from a managerial knowledge of the environment and tactics. Argues that the recognition of such an “illogical” aspect of the planning process will benefit organizational and cultural change on several levels. Suggests issues to be examined in the management of the strategic marketing planning process

Details

Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 4 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0887-6045

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 19 September 2008

Mitchell J. Stein

This paper aims to examine corporate governance and consequences of the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act (SOX) in the US from a socio‐political perspective.

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine corporate governance and consequences of the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act (SOX) in the US from a socio‐political perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

The author employs neo‐liberalism and its related mentality of governmentality to develop an analysis of how corporate governance and reforms such as SOX are socially constructed through autonomous agents, including managers and accountants, and various power relationships that comprise government.

Findings

This paper theorizes that legislative reform, such as SOX, represents pervasive mechanisms of disclosure, surveillance and power, and an insurance rationality designed to manage the new and significant risks of corporate governance. A framework is established which conceptualizes SOX as the intersection of neo‐liberalism, political rationalities and governmental techniques, and accounting practices which lead to the elements of security, quantification and shareholder value. Through this framework a model of risk as governance is developed that examines SOX through technologies of the self, calculation and insurance, designed to act upon managers using knowledge about control or financial statement weaknesses. Such mechanisms identify corporate governance risks, which can be acted upon by outside experts, such as accountants.

Originality/value

The major inference from this paper is that corporate governance research in accounting should pursue new lines of inquiry, which will permit the more profitable extension of existing research. Such inquiry should focus less on empirical corporate governance factors and more on the relationships, and power constructs of corporate governance, as well as how legislative reforms employ tactics to normalize the behaviour of not only managers, but also accountants.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 21 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 December 2002

Soma Hewa

Ponders on whether Abraham Flexner was responsible for the change in medical education in North America in the early 20th century, owing to his report of 1910. Tries to…

Abstract

Ponders on whether Abraham Flexner was responsible for the change in medical education in North America in the early 20th century, owing to his report of 1910. Tries to demonstrate that medical education in the USA was part of a greater whole of major changes at that time. Concludes, though there was a philanthropic influence, Flexner (who refused to accept credit for change) was not the father of the medical reform plan.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 22 no. 11/12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 24 March 2021

Stéphane Jaumier and Thibault Daudigeos

Past research on collectivist-democratic organizations has attributed their distinctiveness to their socio-political goals and democratic decision-making and largely ignored their…

Abstract

Past research on collectivist-democratic organizations has attributed their distinctiveness to their socio-political goals and democratic decision-making and largely ignored their work processes. This ethnographic study examines how such organizations resist alienating forms of work even in the face of direct competition with for-profit companies. It focuses on Scopix, a French cooperative sheet-metal factory where the first author spent one year as a shop-floor worker. Cooperators there developed various practices to retain an emancipatory dimension to their work, regularly putting forward “craft ethics” as a counterweight to the sheet-metal industry’s drive to rationalize work processes. Drawing on the sociology of worth, the authors analyze how these practices emerged from the arrangements that workers made between the industrial world on the one side and the domestic and inspired worlds on the other. This study contributes to the literature into two main ways. First, the authors refine the sociology-of-worth framework by conceptualizing the emancipatory dimension of work as the result of ad hoc arrangements between different worlds. Second, the authors highlight the need for the literature on collectivist-democratic organizations to increase its focus on work, introducing the concept of work degeneration as a step in that direction.

Details

Organizational Imaginaries: Tempering Capitalism and Tending to Communities through Cooperatives and Collectivist Democracy
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-83867-989-7

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1988

Gordon C. Bruner and Richard J. Pomazal

Since 1910, when John Dewey first introduced the five‐stage decision process, it has been a widely accepted concept and still serves as the central pillar of a popular consumer…

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Abstract

Since 1910, when John Dewey first introduced the five‐stage decision process, it has been a widely accepted concept and still serves as the central pillar of a popular consumer behavior model. These stages are Problem Recognition, Information Search, Alternative Evaluation, Choice, and Outcomes. The importance of these stages is attested to by the considerable attention devoted to most of them in numerous textbooks and journal articles. Such attention, however, has not come to the Problem Recognition stage. While some texts provide hypothetical descriptions of this “trigger” of the decision process, theoretical discussion and empirical support are surprisingly lacking. Journal literature fares even worse, with articles on the topic almost non‐existent. Lack of information on the topic is even more ironic when one considers that a purchase cannot occur unless a problem is recognized! The purpose of this article is to provide a detailed explanation of the Problem Recognition process. The results of the few empirical studies that have been done will be examined. In addition, a proposed model of the Problem Recognition process is presented. The implications of this material will be discussed as it relates to marketing.

Details

Journal of Services Marketing, vol. 2 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0887-6045

Article
Publication date: 2 July 2019

Michel Dion

The purpose of this paper is to see to what extent Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutic philosophy could be used to unveil how corporate discourse about financial crimes (in codes of…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to see to what extent Hans-Georg Gadamer’s hermeneutic philosophy could be used to unveil how corporate discourse about financial crimes (in codes of ethics) is closely linked to the process of understanding.

Design/methodology/approach

Corporate ethical discourse of 20 business corporations will be analyzed, as it is conveyed within their codes of ethics. The companies came from five countries (USA, Canada, France, Switzerland and Brazil). In the explanatory study, the following industries were represented (two companies by industry): aircrafts/trains, military, airlines, recreational vehicles, soft drinks, cigarettes, pharmaceuticals, beauty products, telecommunications and banks.

Findings

Historically-based prejudices in three basic narrative strategies (silence, chosen items and detailed discussion) about financial crimes are related to the mindset, to the basic outlook on corporate self-interest or to an absolutizing attitude.

Research limitations/implications

The historically-based prejudices that have been identified in this explanatory study should be analyzed in longitudinal studies.

Practical implications

The historically-based prejudices that have been identified in this explanatory study should be analyzed in longitudinal studies. Historically-based prejudices could be strengthened by the way corporate codes of ethics deal with financial crimes. They could, thus, have a deep impact on the organizational culture in the long-run.

Originality/value

The paper analyzes the way corporate codes of ethics use given narrative strategies to address financial crimes issues. It also unveils historically-based prejudices that follow from the choice of one or the other narrative strategy.

Details

Journal of Financial Crime, vol. 26 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1359-0790

Keywords

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