Control deviations can occur due to breakdowns in IT or manual controls. In IT control deviations, the technology element is irrelevant because only the manual/human element of an IT control can fail when the control is properly designed and protected from change. However, the human-computer interaction literature indicates that the presence of technol ogy reduces human blame regardless of the relevance of technology to a failure event (Kelton et al. 2008; Naquin and Kurtzberg 2004; Nissenbaum 1994). Since explanations of IT control deviations necessarily contain information about technology, we expect perceived management blame will be reduced. In contrast, explanations of manual control deviations normally do not contain information that reduces perceived management blame. In the absence of such information, human failure stands alone and management is held more accountable (Morris et al. 1999; Naquin and Kurtzberg 2004).