Say, is that a narcissist in your C-Suite?

If company executives spend too much time, say, on themselves, they could be narcissists, and auditors have found a correlation between narcissism in corporate leaders and fraud, according to a study by a USF assistant professor and other academics.

Auditors found that narcissistic leaders tend to take more risks, says Randy Kuhn, an assistant professor of accounting at the University of South Florida. He authored the report with faculty members from Indiana University, the University of Wyoming, and West Virginia University. The study, “The Impact of Client Attitude on Fraud Risk Assessment,” is published in the current issue of "Auditing: A Journal of Theory and Practice."

“Auditors do make that conscious relationship between a narcissistic type of person and fraud,” says Kuhn in a statement. “Evidence shows those type of individuals believe they're above the law.”