Table 3.
The primary items of scale of employee fraud motive.
| 1st-level dimensions | 2nd-level dimensions | Indicators (sources) | Items |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attitude | Cognitive component | Moral awareness (Reynolds, 2006) | Knowing that the fraud is wrong before exposure |
| Cognitive moral development (Blasi, 1980) | Usually knowing right from wrong | ||
| Moral philosophies (Henle et al., 2005) | Usually caring about the people around them | ||
| Moral identity (Aquino and Reed, 2002) | Usually attaching great importance to moral cultivation | ||
| Responsibility (Collins and Schmidt, 1993) | Usually being responsible | ||
| Moral intensity (Jones, 1991; Paolillo and Vitell, 2002) | Claiming their frauds hurt no one; Claiming their frauds do not harm those they know well; Claiming their frauds are for good causes; Claiming their frauds are common actions; Claiming the adverse consequences of their frauds are not serious; Claiming the probability of adverse consequences from their frauds is very small; Claiming their frauds will have few adverse consequences in the near future |
||
| Affective component | Moral emotion (Eisenberg, 2000) | Usually feeling no guilt or shame for their mistakes | |
| Locus of control (Trevino and Youngblood, 1990) | Usually tending to attribute it to external factors rather than to themselves | ||
| Moral disengagement (Bandura, 1999) | Usually tending to make excuses for their mistakes; claiming the company owes them; Claiming they are just borrowing and will pay back later; Claiming they will pay the company more in other ways; Believing certain things, such as honor or integrity, are expendable |
||
| Subjective norm | Personal norm | Personal financial pressure (Agnew, 1992) | Trying to relieve their financial pressure by their frauds; Usually living beyond their means; Being unable to pay their debt before their frauds; Having bad credit histories before their frauds; Suffering from personal financial losses before their frauds; Encountering unexpected financial needs before their frauds; Usually engaging in bad behaviors such as gambling, drug abuse, alcoholism, visiting prostitutes and extramarital affairs; Claiming that once they get through their financial difficulties, they make up for the gaps created by their frauds |
| Descriptive norm | Training (Weaver et al., 1999) | Usually lacking ethics training | |
| Family education (Demuth and Brown, 2004) | Lacking good family education | ||
| Injunctive norm | Compensation incentives (Hill et al., 1992) | Usually being paid based on performance | |
| Performance goals (Schweitzer et al., 2004) | Trying to achieve performance goals through their frauds | ||
| Job satisfaction (Judge et al., 2006) | Usually being dissatisfied with their jobs | ||
| Work pressure (Fraud Auditing Standards) | Usually being not recognized for their performance; Usually being very concerned about losing their jobs; Usually being very eager to be promoted; Usually claiming they are being paid far less than they contribute |
||
| Perceived behavioral control | External factor | Power (Dunn, 2004) | Usually holding a great deal of power |
| Economic temptation (Hegarty and Sims, 1978) | Profiting greatly from their frauds | ||
| Internal factor | Greedy (Fraud Auditing Standards) | Usually being very greedy | |
| Self-control (Hirschi and Gottfredson, 1987) | Usually having good self-control | ||
| Machiavellian (Hegarty and Sims, 1979; Dahling et al., 2009) | Usually being very utilitarian and only looking at the results, not the process; Usually having a strong desire to control; Usually having a strong desire for money, power and status; Usually distrusting others |
||
| Self-efficacy (Flannery and May, 2000) | Usually being confident in their capabilities | ||
| Hedonism (Blickle et al., 2006) | Usually liking to enjoy life | ||
| Information asymmetry (Dunk, 1993) | Usually having more information at work that only they know; Usually performing work that is difficult to judge the quality of |