Corporations

Types of Deception in Corporations

Deception within corporations can be categorized in two ways: deception occurring during the job-selection process and deception occurring outside this process. The selection process can be defined as the nature of assessments put into place by the potential employer and taken or participated in by the candidate. The nature of the job-selection process, in which both parties hope to make a good impression while simultaneously evaluating the other, makes it an ideal environment for deception. Deception can occur at any point during the selection process, including on the corporation's Web site, job descriptions, resumes, personality tests, and during the employment interview and other noncognitive assessments. Perhaps the medium best suited to portraying an attractive, positive image of the company is its official Web site. The interview is also influential in determining an applicant's impression about the company because applicants often interpret the interviewer's behavior as a signal of what the company is like.

Corporations are not alone in trying to create favorable impressions; job applicants may also be deceptive by changing dates on resumes, embellishing previous tasks and accomplishments to sound more impressive, or lying about past salaries. Any noncognitive self-report test is also susceptible to deception and socially desirable responding. For instance, applicants may choose the answers that they think are most likely to get them the job, such as extroverted responses on a personality test for a job in sales. Deception during the interview can include stretching the truth, omitting information that could hurt one's chances, taking credit for others' work, or even blatantly lying about experiences and qualifications.

Deception is not just problematic for selection, but may also affect individuals already employed by the organization. The various types of non-selection-related deception can be broken down into deception: about money, involving bias, about one's own work, about others' work, and involving communication.

Financial deception covers a wide range of behaviors, including compensation dishonesty, falsifying records, padding expense accounts, and embezzlement. Many employers are not altogether upfront with their employees about compensation, paying comparable employees unequally and then lying about it. Falsifying financial records (“cooking the books”) is another form of financial deception. The Enron scandal is a classic example of this behavior, in which the company falsified its financial figures to look more favorable. In response to this and similar scandals, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was enacted to protect investors from the fraudulent financial activities of corporations.

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