A lot of focus has gone into the pressures that drive managers into committing fraud. Everything from incentive systems to pressure from analysts. But what about their own behavior? What about their character? What are the traits that send them over the edge?

All this is examined in a cross-national study, The role of managers' behavior in corporate fraud, that offers some interesting insights and suggestions.

Examining the behavior of such luminaries as Trico's Denis Kozlowski and HealthSouth's Richard Scrushy, the researchers found that these managers usually had a very high living standard which could lead them to unethical or fraudulent decisions, they had a personality, namely tyrannical or autocratic which did not favor a collective and sound culture in the firm, that they benefited from articles of praise from the press and that they benefited from a dominant position in respect to other employees, making it difficult for others to critically evaluate their actions.

The authors say that these variables need to be incorporated into auditing standards to give auditors enough of a warning sign.