Gender-specific ethical and behavioral differences and employees who engage in accounting fraud: A qualitative case study

Fortune 500 companies such as Enron and WorldCom have shown that over the past fifteen years management and accounting employees were compelled to manipulate earnings to meet published financial expectations. Females have historically held lower ranking positions to males at Enron and WorldCom. However, males have historically been promoted into senior management positions at younger ages to their female counterparts. This qualitative case study provided the foundations and conceptualizations in gender as it relates to culture, ethical beliefs, and choice of accounting employees to engage in fraudulent accounting practices at Enron and WorldCom. Using Kohlberg and Gilligan's research on ethical relativism combined with data collected from the Enron and WorldCom trials, the study evaluated the relationship between gender and fraudulent accounting practices at both companies and determined that females were less likely to engage in fraudulent accounting practices in each organization. The results of conducting this case study may help organizations to better understand the relationship between corporate culture, executive leadership, gender, and accounting fraud by providing a framework from which corporations can develop training programs, provide the confidential resources for employees to report fraud, and provide vehicles of communication to employees on standards of business conduct.