The Moderating Role of Personality Characteristics on the Relationship between Financial Motivation and Profit Management

Personality traits play an important role in financial motivation and profit management as they can influence an individual's attitudes and behaviors with regards to money.  In this study, profit management decisions are examined with three behavioral approaches, and the role of financial motivation in profit management decisions with an emphasis on the personality characteristics of financial managers is investigated in a sample of 65 financial managers of listed companies in Stock Exchange. This study is applied descriptive-correlation research. Financial motivation is considered as an independent variable, profit management decisions as a dependent variable, and personal characteristics (emotional intelligence, narcissism, and non-adherence to ethics) as a moderating variable. A purposive sampling method was used for sample selection and multiple regression was used to test the hypothesis. The results indicated a significant positive relationship between financial motivation and profit management decisions. However, there is no significant relationship between financial motivation and profit management decisions with two approaches of adherence and non-adherence to accounting standards. Moreover, the moderating variables of personal characteristics have no significant effect on profit management decisions. Therefore, in Iran, since financial managers are selected by the company's CEOs, CEOs have a significant impact on their performance in order to achieve their goals. Hence, maintaining job security and organizational position and promoting organizational interests may cause personality characteristics of financial managers and accounting standards to have no effect on profit management decisions.