A recent
article in The Economist
discusses how to avoid being asked to commit fraud. It can be very
uncomfortable if your manager asks you to alter the books or do anything that
is unethical. Often there are not only repercussions for committing the fraud
(i.e., fines or jail time), but also for not committing the fraud (21% of
employees who reported unethical behavior at work said they experienced some
form of punishment from their employer). If you refuse to commit a fraud, your
manager may choose not to promote you or may even fire you. Rather than refusing to commit a fraud, the
best scenario for an employee would be to never be asked to commit a
fraud. A study that was done by Dr. Sreedhari Desai (professor at the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) found one approach that dissuades
managers from asking employees to engage in unethical behavior.
