Dark Triad Managerial Personality and Financial Reporting Manipulation

We investigate the relationship between dark triad personality traits (Machiavellianism, narcissism, and psychopathy) of managers practice reporting manipulation using a primary survey 837 professionals working in accounting finance departments. find that (a) who exhibit are associated with higher prevalence fraudulent practices their departments (b) traditional risk management mechanisms only partially effective mitigating this effect. Internal audits curtailing negative behavior if these internal outsourced performed by independent external personnel but not they conducted personnel. This suggests able to manipulate other employees quite effectively. Consequently, having perform auditing task provides safeguard against such unethical manipulation. finding has strong practical implications, as it support for outsourcing rather than keeping them in-house.