Organizational Culture, Insider Threats, and Employee-Assisted Fraud in the Nigerian Hospitality Sector

Abstract

The ongoing issue of employee-assisted fraud remains a major governance challenge for service-oriented enterprises in developing countries because their internal control systems require further development. The research investigates how organizational culture interacts with insider threats to cause employee-assisted fraud within Nigeria's hospitality sector. The research investigates how ethical climate and leadership accountability together with control orientation create the conditions that lead to insider threats and fraud activities in the Nigerian hospitality industry. The study conducted a cross-sectional survey to collect data from 198 hotel managerial and supervisory staff members who work in registered hotels throughout Abuja Nigeria. The researchers utilized the data assessment process which included descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis methods. The study results show that weak ethical climate and poor leadership accountability lead to insider threat prevalence prediction with a statistical relationship of (β = 0.42, p < .01) while insider threat prevalence serves as a strong predictor for employee-assisted fraud with a statistical relation of (β = 0.61, p < .001). The research demonstrates that weak cultural systems create opportunity structures which allow occupational fraud to happen. The research shows through its evidence from a developing economy that hospitality institutions should adopt a culture-integrated fraud governance model. The study describes practical implications that hotel managers and regulatory agencies need to take into account.