Information on the fight against corruption and corporate governance practices: evidence of organized hypocrisy

• Published in: International journal of disclosure and governance Vol. 16; no. 2-3; pp. 145 - 160
• Main Authors: do Nascimento Ferreira Barros, Arthur, Rodrigues, Raimundo Nonato, Panhoca, Luiz
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Palgrave Macmillan UK 01.07.2019; Palgrave Macmillan
• Subjects: Accounting/Auditing; Business and Management; Corporate Finance; Corporate Governance; Corruption; Corruption in government; Original Article; Scandals; Stockholders; Brazil; Data triangulation; Corruption; Organized hypocrisy; Corporate governance; Disclosure; Brazilian scandals
• ISSN: 1741-3591; 1746-6539
• DOI: 10.1057/s41310-019-00060-2

This paper evidences the discrepancy between the speech and actions about anti-corruption issues of companies who were involved in corruption scandals in Brazil. Corruption is a social problem, not exclusively for shareholders, mostly in Brazil, where those scandals involved public resources that could be use in health and education. Although, the results showed that, with the exception of the Odebrecht Company, the other organizations regularly disclosed information on the fight against corruption and had high levels of corporate governance. Was found a positive and significant relationship, corroborating with the hypothesis formulated in the research, allowing us infer that the one disclosed by the organizations corresponds to the measures applied to combat corruption internally. However, these findings indicate that the companies used the organized hypocrisy as a strategy to meet different stakeholder demands and allow questioning whether the corporate governance measures proposed by the Brazilian Institute of Corporate Governance are effective against the fight against corruption and fraud in Brazilian organizations. This article is not written only for shareholders and market bodies, corruption, even in organizations, affects besides the financial market the society, especially in underdeveloped and developing countries where resources are scarce. Therefore, not only investors should have a critical analyzes at what is disclosed by organizations, especially in order to perceive discrepancies between what is published and what is actually done, but also society in general.