Principles of Fraud Examination, 4th Edition

CHAPTER 17

OCCUPATIONAL FRAUD AND ABUSE: THE BIG PICTURE

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

17-1	Understand and describe abusive conduct
17-2	Determine why attempting to achieve perfection in the workplace is not desirable
17-3	Explain the obstacles to accurately measuring the level of occupational fraud and abuse in organizations
17-4	Determine why greed is an inadequate explanation for occupational fraud and abuse
17-5	Explain the concept of “wages in kind”
17-6	Compare and contrast fraud prevention and fraud deterrence
17-7	Explain the significance of the “perception of detection”
17-8	Identify some of the factors related to increasing the perception of detection
17-9	Explain the relevance of adequate reporting programs to fraud deterrence
17-10	Understand the implications of the Corporate Sentencing Guidelines
17-11	Understand ethics and ethical theory

DEFINING ABUSIVE CONDUCT

The cases we have seen on the preceding pages were, by and large, on the extreme edge of abusive conduct by employees. In short, this data is merely the tip of the iceberg. How deep and massive that iceberg is varies from one organization to another, depending on a complex set of business and human factors.

The depth of the iceberg is also measured by what is defined as abusive conduct. Obviously, the more rules within the organization, the more likely employees are to run afoul of them. A study by Richard Hollinger and John Clark revealed ...