THE INFLUENCE OF NARCISSISM IN THE PROFESSIONAL ENVIRONMENT: ASPECTS RELATED TO DISHONESTY
Keywords:
Narcissism, Dishonesty, Accounting.Abstract
The objective of this study was to identify whether non-pathological narcissistic personality traits of undergraduate accounting students are related to their perception of dishonesty considering their future professional context, based on a survey of 108 accounting majors. The sample included students who joined the University of São Paulo between 2014 and 2016. The questionnaire used in this study was composed of three parts: i) participant profile; ii) Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI); and iii) the instrument for evaluating the respondents’ perception regarding attitudes that are considered as dishonest. The students analyzed tend to agree with some statements that relate to characteristics of narcissistic individuals, such as: a belief that they will be successful individuals, that they are seen as good leaders, and that they like to look at themselves in the mirror. Regarding dishonesty in the professional context, the attitudes the students considered most dishonest were: selling confidential information about a client, filling out a false expense report and turning it in, and pressuring a colleague to do your work and then taking credit for the work as your own. In relation to the model estimation aimed at testing the association between narcissistic personality traits and dishonesty in the professional context, we initially expected that the higher an individual’s score on the NPI, the lower the score would be on our instrument to measure perceptions of dishonest professional behavior. In the sample studied, however, the variable referring to narcissism was not statistically significant in this respect. We did find that the students who were more tolerant of academic dishonesty also tended to be more tolerant of professional dishonesty. That finding allows inferring that unethical behavior in the past is a strong indicator of future misbehavior, specifically that a positive correlation exists between dishonest behavior during school years and the propensity to engage in or tolerate fraud in the future professional setting.Downloads
References
Abreu, E. H. V. (2012). O Novo Perfil do Contador na Atualidade. Available at: <http://www.sinescontabil.com.br/noticias/2011/09/28/28-09-11-onovo-perfil-do-contador-na-atualidade.phtml>. Consulted on: July 10, 2013.
Ackerman, R. A. et al. (2011). What Does the Narcissistic Personality Inventory Really Measure? Assessment, 18(1), pp. 67-87.
Allen, J., Fuller, D. & Luckett, M. (1998). Academic integrity: Behaviors, rates, and attitudes of business students toward cheating. Journal of Marketing Education, 20(1), pp. 41-52.
Amernic, J. H. & Craig, R. J. (2010). Accounting as a Facilitator of Extreme Narcissism. Journal of Business Ethics, 96, pp. 79–93, 2010.
Avelino, B. C. & Lima, G. A. S. F. (2017). Narcisismo e Desonestidade Acadêmica. Revista Universo Contábil, Blumenau, 13(3), pp. 70-89, jul./set..
Baird, J. S. (1980). Current trends in college cheating. Psychology in the Schools, 17(4), 515-522.
Blickle, G., Schlegel, A., Fassbender, P., & Klein, U. (2006). Some personality correlates of business white-collar crime. Applied Psychology, 55(2), 220-233.
Bogart, L. M., Benotsch, E. G., & Pavlovic, J. D. P. (2004). Feeling superior but threatened: The relation of narcissism to social comparison. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 26(1), 35-44.
Brandão, J. S. (1989). Mitologia Grega. Petrópolis: Ed. Vozes, vol. II.
Brown, A. D. (1997). Narcissism, identity, and legitimacy. Academy of Management Review, 22(3), 643-686.
Brown, R. P., Budzek, K. & Tamborski, M. (2009). On the meaning and measure of narcissism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 35, pp. 951–964.
Brunell, A. B., Staats, S., Barden, J. & Hupp, J. M. (2011). Narcissism and academic dishonesty: The exhibitionism dimension and the lack of guilt. Personality and Individual Differences, 50, pp. 323–328.
Bushman, B. J., & Baumeister, R. F. (1998). Threatened egotism, narcissism, self-esteem, and direct and displaced aggression: Does self-love or self-hate lead to violence? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(1), 219.
Campbell, W. K. et al. (2004). Psychological entitlement: Interpersonal consequences and validation of a self-report measure. Journal of Personality Assessment, 83(1), 29-45.
Campbell,W. K., Foster, J. D. & Brunell, A. B. (2004). Running from shame or reveling in pride? Narcissism and the regulation of self-conscious emotions. Psychological Inquiry, 15, pp. 150–153.
Center for World University Rankings – CWUR. Available at: <http://cwur.org/2015/>. Consulted on: January 19, 2016.
Chatterjee, A., & Hambrick, D. C. (2007). It's all about me: Narcissistic chief executive officers and their effects on company strategy and performance. Administrative Science Quarterly, 52(3), 351-386.
Chatterjee, A., & Hambrick, D. C. (2011). Executive Personality, Capability Cues, and Risk Taking: How Narcissistic CEOs React to their Successes and Stumbles. Administrative Science Quarterly, 56(2), 202-237.
Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais – COEP/UFMG. Comitê de Ética em Pesquisa – COEP. Available at: <https://www.ufmg.br/bioetica/coep/>. Consulted on: April 3, 2016.
Corry, N., Merritt, R. D., Mrug, S., & Pamp, B. (2008). The Factor Structure of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. Journal of Personality Assessment, 90(6), pp. 593-600.
Costa, J. F. (1986). Violência e Psicanálise. Rio de Janeiro: Editora Graal.
Crown, D. F., & Spiller, M. S. (1998). Learning from the literature on collegiate cheating: A review of empirical research. Journal of Business Ethics, 17(6), 683-700.
D’Souza, M. F. (2016). Manobras financeiras e o Dark Triad: o despertar do lado sombrio na gestão. Tese (Doutorado em Controladoria e Contabilidade) - Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade da Universidade de São Paulo (FEA/USP), São Paulo.
Davis, S. F., & Ludvigson, H. W. (1995). Additional data on academic dishonesty and a proposal for remediation. Teaching of Psychology, 22(2), 119-121.
Duchon, D., & Drake, B. (2009). Organizational narcissism and virtuous behavior. Journal of Business Ethics, 85(3), 301-308.
Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade - FEA/USP (2016). FEA Júnior USP. Available at: <https://www.fea.usp.br/alumni/fea-junior>. Consulted on: January 19, 2016.
Faculdade de Economia, Administração e Contabilidade - FEA/USP. Conexão Mercado. FEA por FEA - FEA Júnior prepara alunos para Processos Seletivos. Available at: <https://www.fea.usp.br/fea/noticias/fea-por-fea-fea-junior-prepara-alunos-para-processos-seletivos>. Consulted on: January 19, 2016.
Foster, J. D., Campbell, W. K., & Twenge, J. M. (2003). Individual differences in narcissism: Inflated self-views across the lifespan and around the world. Journal of Research in Personality, 37(6), 469-486.
Glad, B. (2002). Why tyrants go too far: Malignant narcissism and absolute power. Political Psychology, 23(1), 1-2
Green, A. (1988). Narcisismo de Vida, Narcisimo de Morte. São Paulo: Editora Escuta.
Grimes, P. W. (2004). Dishonesty in Academics and Business: a Cross-Cultural Evaluation of Students Attitudes. Journal of Business Ethics, 49, pp. 273-290.
Guimarães, L. M. (2012). Três Estudos sobre o Conceito de Narcisismo na Obra de Freud: Origem, Metapsicologia e Formas Sociais. Dissertação (Mestrado em Psicologia) - Instituto de Psicologia, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, 2012.
Hudson, E. J. (2012). Understanding and Exploring Narcissism: Impact on Students and College Campuses. CMC Senior Theses. Paper 381.
Johnson, E. N., Kuhn Jr, J. R., Apostolou, B. A., & Hassell, J. M. (2013). Auditor perceptions of client narcissism as a fraud attitude risk factor. Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, 32(1), 203-219.
Kansi, J. (2003). The narcissistic personality inventory: Applicability in a Swedish population sample. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 44(5), 441-448.
Kets de Vries, M. F. (1994). The leadership mystique. The Academy of Management Executive, 8(3), 73-89
Kets de Vries, M. F. (2004). Organizations on the Couch: A Clinical Perspective on Organizational Dynamics. European Management Journal, 22(2), 183-200.
Kets de Vries, M. F., & Miller, D. (1985). Narcissism and leadership: An object relations perspective. Human Relations, 38(6), 583-601.
Krizan, Z., & Bushman, B. J. (2011). Better than my loved ones: Social comparison tendencies among narcissists. Personality and Individual Differences, 50(2), 212-216.
Kubarych, T. S., Deary, I. J., & Austin, E. J. (2004). The narcissistic personality inventory: factor structure in a non-clinical sample. Personality and Individual Differences, 36, 857-872.
Lasch, C. (1983). A cultura do narcisismo: a vida americana numa era de esperanças em declínio. Rio de Janeiro: Imago.
Lubit, R. (2002). The long-term organizational impact of destructively narcissistic managers. The Academy of Management Executive, 16(1), 127-138.
Maccoby, M. (2003), The Productive Narcissist: The Promise and Peril of Visionary Leadership. New York: Broadway Books.
Magalhães, M. & Koller, S. H. (1994). Relação entre narcisismo, sexo e gênero. Arquivos Brasileiro de Psicologia, 46(3/4), pp. 77-93.
Martin, D. E., Rao, A. & Sloan, L. R. (2009). Plagiarism, Integrity, and Workplace Deviance: A Criterion Study. Ethics & Behavior, 19(1), pp. 36–50.
Mazlish, B. (1982). American Narcissism. The Psychohistory Review, 10(3-4), pp. 185-202.
McCabe, D. L. & Trevino, L. K. (1993). Academic dishonesty: Honor codes and other contextual influences. Journal of Higher Education, 64(5), pp. 522-538.
Menon, M. K. & Sharland, A. (2011). Narcissism, Exploitative Attitudes, and Academic Dishonesty: An Exploratory Investigation of Reality versus Myth. Journal of Education for Business, 86, pp. 50–55.
Miller, J. D., & Campbell, W. K. (2008). Comparing Clinical and Social‐Personality Conceptualizations of Narcissism. Journal of personality, 76(3), 449-476.
Miller, J. D. et al. (2009). Examining the relations among narcissism, impulsivity, and self‐defeating behaviors. Journal of personality, 77(3), 761-794.
Morf, C. C., Weir, C. & Davidov, M. (2000). Narcissism and Intrinsic Motivation: The Role of Goal Congruence. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 36(4), pp. 424-438.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers. (2014). Pesquisa Global sobre Crimes Econômicos 2014 Brasil. Available at: <https://www.pwc.com.br/pt_BR/br/publicacoes/servicos/assets/consultoria-negocios/pesquisa-gecs-2014.pdf>. Consulted on: May 15, 2015.
QS World University Rankings® 2014/15 (2014). Available at: <http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2014#sorting=rank+region=349+country=353+faculty=+stars=false+search=>. Consulted on: March 29, 2015.
Raskin, R. N. & Hall, C. S. (1979). A narcissistic personality inventory. Psychological Reports, 45(2), pp. 590.
Raskin, R., & Terry, H. (1988). A principal-components analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and further evidence of its construct validity. Journal of personality and social psychology, 54(5), 890.
Rhodewalt, F., & Morf, C. C. (1995). Self and interpersonal correlates of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory: A review and new findings. Journal of Research in Personality, 29(1), 1-23.
Robins, R. W., & Beer, J. S. (2001). Positive illusions about the self: Short-term benefits and long-term costs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(2), pp. 340- 352.
Rojas, A. (2007). La autoestima: nuestra fuerza secreta. Madrid: Espasa Calpe.
Sanchez, O. P. & Innarelli, P. B. (2012). Desonestidade Acadêmica, Plágio e Ética. GVExecutivo, 11(1), January-June.
Schwartz, H. S. (1991). Narcissism Project and Corporate Decay: The Case of General Motors. Business Ethics Quarterly, 1, pp. 249–268.
Sindicato dos Contabilistas de São Paulo - SINDCONT-SP (2016). Cursos de Ciências Contábeis - saiba mais! Universidade de São Paulo. Available at: <http://www.sindcontsp.org.br/menu/noticias-sobre-o-sindcont-sp/id/3477/>. Consulted on: January 20, 2016.
Smith, K. J., Davy, J. A., Rosenberg, D. L., & Haight, G. T. (2003). A structural modeling investigation of the influence of demographic and attitudinal factors and in-class deterrents on cheating behavior among accounting majors. Journal of Accounting Education, 20(1), 45-65.
Smyth, L. S.& Davis, J. R. (2004). Perceptions of Dishonesty among Two-Year College Students: Academic versus Business Situations. Journal of Business Ethics, 51, pp. 63–73.
Taniguchi, S. P. (2011). Desonestidade Acadêmica: interação entre fatores pessoais e práticas de grupo Na atitude de estudantes de IES. 64 f. Dissertação (Mestrado em Administração). Universidade Metodista de São Paulo, São Paulo.
Times Higher Education – THE (2015). Available at: <https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings>. Consulted on: January 19, 2016.
Trechera, J. L., Torre, G. M. V. & Morales, E. F. (2008). Estudio Empírico del Trastorno Narcisista de da Personalidad (TNP). Acta Colombiana de Psicología, 11(2), pp. 25-36.
Trzesniewski, K. H., Donnellan, M. B., & Robins, R. W. (2008). Do today's young people really think they are so extraordinary? An examination of secular trends in narcissism and self-enhancement. Psychological Science, 19(2), 181-188.
Universidade de São Paulo – USP (2016). Jornal da USP. Available at: <http://jornal.usp.br/universidade/feira-de-recrutamento-e-carreira-coloca-empresa-e-estudante-em-contato/>. Consulted on: July 11, 2016.
Velov, B., Gojković, V., & Đurić, V. (2014). Materialism, narcissism and the attitide towards conspicuous consumption. Psihologija, 47(1), 113-129.
Wallace, H. M. & Baumeister, R. F. (2002). The Performance of Narcissists Rises and Falls with Perceived Opportunity for Glory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(5), pp. 819-834.
Watson, J. M. (2012). Educating the Disagreeable Extravert: Narcissism, the Big Five Personality Traits, and Achievement Goal Orientation. International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 24(1), pp. 76-88.
Young, S. M., & Pinsky, D. (2006). Narcissism and celebrity. Journal of Research in Personality, 40(5), pp. 463-471.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright for articles published in the ASAA Journal is held by the author, with first publication rights to the journal. By virtue of appearing in this publicly accessible journal, the articles are free to use, with their own attributions, in educational and non-commercial applications. The ASAA Journal will allow the use of published works for non-commercial purposes, including the right to submit the work to publicly accessible databases. Published articles are the authors' full and exclusive responsibility. There are no submission/publishing charges or fees for processing articles (APC).
