Detecting Fraud in Organizations: Techniques, Tools, and Resources

Chapter Three

Deciding to Commit Fraud

What Is the “Something” That Coerces People to Cross the Line?

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.

—Albert Einstein

People are the most valuable and indispensable asset in an organizational fraud strategy. We need to view people as an investment with risk and rewards that can make a significant difference in an organization’s ability to prevent fraud as well as increase organizational value.

We live in a global society, bringing with it new advantages and responsibilities. A successful organizational structure creates a harmonic balance while maintaining correct ethics and treating its people as its most precious commodity.

In this chapter we discuss how external stakeholders influence today’s organizations through expectations and how organizations need to adjust for the variants among the cultures of all of the corporate members, whether the chairman of the board or an employee, all while protecting the value created within the organization. The challenge in terms of fraud, therefore, is to align the competing cultural values with the corporate culture to create an environment in which organizational value thrives, yet not at the expense of moral integrity.

This chapter features the following:

Perspectives on responsibility and reward and how they vary by generation.

Methods for aligning the control environment with internal and external expectations.

Ways to develop and communicate decision-making models ...