شناخت علل و اثرات کلاه برداری در مدیریت های رده بالا

Fraud by top managers has become a worldwide problem. Major scandals have rocked the U.S. (e.g., Enron Corp., Fannie Mae, Global Crossing and WorldCom Inc.), drawing attention to the serious consequences of fraud, not only for companies but also for their employees, communities and society at large. But fraud by top management is not just a U.S. problem; Asian, European, Latin American, African and Australian companies also have been afflicted. Revelations of such fraud have been alarming across the political and ideological divide. After all, how can well paid and highly respected senior executives develop such elaborate schemes to defraud the very people who invested in their companies? What would lead successful and accomplished senior executives to lie for money and jeopardize their honor, reputations and careers? Moreover, revelations of fraud by senior executives have made many wonder: How can these crimes be committed and persist for years in spite of external audits by professional companies and monitoring by boards of directors? What can be done to reform corporate governance and to instill a strong ethical perspective among top managers? In this paper, we discuss different types of fraud by top managers and link them to various classes of white-collar crime. We then identify key societal, industry, organizational and individual characteristics that contribute to such behaviors. Next, we highlight the various societal, industry and organizational effects of top management fraud.

Despite the public outrage about the prevalence of fraud, we still do not have clear answers to a number of simple but important questions about management fraud. For example, what motivates successful senior managers to engage in fraud? How do these managers succeed in co-opting and involving others in their fraudulent schemes? Why do many members of the organization who uncover fraud, accidentally or otherwise, nevertheless fail to report it? And what perpetuates such silence and compliance to corrupt authority? There is no doubt that today's business environment has spawned vast new opportunities for fraud in which highly placed insiders steal from their own institutions. These crimes are: difficult to detect in the short run; complex in their design, and therefore difficult for even those who are financially sophisticated to fully comprehend; several orders of magnitude larger than the manufacturing sector crimes of earlier years; and extremely difficult to prosecute and obtain convictions because of the various means available to senior executives to cover their tracks. Fraud by top management has devastating effects on shareholders, employees, communities, companies, and society at large. Our discussion of the various effects of top management fraud serves as a reminder of the critical importance of ethical and responsible senior leadership. Boards of directors need to make the recruitment, retention, nurturing and promotion of such executives a priority. Companies must also strive to develop organizational cultures that encourage reporting of abuses and fraud, and protect whistle blowers. These cultures emphasize ethical behavior in hiring, evaluating, rewarding and promoting employees and managers alike, while setting and reinforcing realistic performance expectations at every managerial level.