The Dark Traits of Machiavellian Personality and Propensity for Accounting Fraud: An Exploratory Study

Abstract

The aim of this article is to address the subject of some Machiavellian personality traits  and the seriousness of their unethical behavior on the institution and its employees. It is important to include their characteristics  in the risk indicators in the internal control and  audit systems. And try to add control procedures that enhance the role of the internal auditor in the early detection of fraud indicators  related to the    psychological motives of accountants and financial custody employees that may make them inclined in the future  For fraud or collusion to fraud This research is concerned with the independent variable that is represented by the Machiavellian personality and its secondary dimensions, which are (immorality, desire to obtain the place, desire to control and distrust the latter)  The dependent variable is accounting fraud and its dimensions such as (opportunity, justification, pressure or motivation) and the study tool was the  questionnaire asa means of collecting study data . A group of accountants and external auditors from Najaf Governorate were selected as a random sample for research  and answered the  questionnaire designed with two axes, the first to measure the Machiavellian personality by (12) questions divided into four dimensions and the second axis accounting fraud and (17) questions were divided into three dimensions, andrepresent the study community in the auditors' offices and some companies within Najaf Governorate. 

The researcher used the statistical package program (SPSS) to analyze the data and the  most prominent results reached by the researcher were the most prominent findings. The Machiavellian traits have an impact on making fateful decisions and manipulating them, which increases the likelihood of tendencies  to fraud, as the study concluded that there is a significant impact of all Machiavellian personality traits on the tendency to fraud.