The Impact of Gender on Perceptions of Occupational Frauds and the Likelihood Those Frauds will be Reported

• In Event: Impact of Gender, Women Leaders, and Gender as a Missing Variable

Abstract

I. ABSTRACT
Extant literature in regard to occupational frauds has shown that, in some circumstances, personal characteristics of the evaluator, such as age and gender, can affect an individual’s perception of unethical behaviors and their likelihood of reporting such actions. However, the potential impact of the gender of the perpetrator of the actions on others’ perceptions of the act and likelihood of reporting the act has been largely ignored in prior research. In addition, the types of unethical acts studies vary considerably, and little attention has focused specifically on occupational frauds. The current study expands previous literature by examining whether whistle-blowing intentions will differ significantly if fraud is committed by a female versus a male perpetrator. Participants were each given four scenarios, each depicting a different fraud act: falsified financial statements in a loan application, receipt of kickbacks, tax fraud leading to underpayment of sales tax and business income tax, and embezzlement of cash receipts. All participants received identical scenarios, except for the gender of the perpetrator. Some participants were given a set of scenarios in which all the crimes were committed by a male perpetrator, while others were given a set of scenarios in which all the crimes were committed by a female perpetrator. Results indicate no statistically significant differences in the propensity to report the crimes due to gender of the perpetrator. The gender of the study participant was significant to the whistleblowing intentions only for the tax fraud scenario when the perpetrator was not a friend or relative.

Authors

• Jane Baird, Minnesota State University - Mankato

• Robert C Zelin, Minnesota State University, Mankato