The Show Must go on! Legitimization Processes Surrounding Certified Fraud Examiners’ Claim to Expertise

This article investigates how the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) sought to gain legitimacy among its members as a group possessing expertise in the prevention and detection of fraud. Using theoretical concepts devised by Goffman [1959. The presentation of self in everyday life. Garden City, NY: Doubleday] about performance and impression management, the ACFE’s performance is studied from the perspective of the show put on by the association’s leaders, and through our analysis of the response to this show from its members. Thanks to sophisticated data collection (ethnographic endeavor, interviews with CFEs, and document analysis), we found that the ACFE’s promotional machinery comprises pragmatic, moral, and epistemic claims. Our analysis indicates that pragmatic legitimacy plays a central role in enrolling members as ambassadors of the CFE designation – in spite of the skepticism that they tend to have regarding the association’s moral and epistemic claims. We are therefore confronted with a spread of claims to expertise taking place despite a degree of internal discordance – as if member discomfort with certain aspects of their association’s discourse is immaterial to the construction of the association’s external legitimacy. Ultimately, our findings lead us to reflect on the social value associated with the spread of credentialism in today’s society.