Workplace Theft Research Articles

Norm violations and behavioral spillovers—Evidence from the lab and the field

This paper explores the contagion effects of norm-violating behavior across decision situations. Through a series of laboratory and field experiments, we empirically establish the conditions under which norm-breaking behavior in one decision situation leads individuals who observe this to violate norms in other, distinct decision situations. Our laboratory findings show that these spillover effects are more pronounced when the norms underlying the decision situations are perceived to be similar. However, spillovers can also affect decision situations governed by relatively dissimilar norms if the observers of norm violations have had the opportunity to first violate the same norm as the observed violator themselves. In an accompanying field experiment, we underscore the economic importance of norm similarity for spillover effects. When workers are exposed to information about celebrities evading taxes, they exhibit significantly higher rates of workplace theft than those in the control group, yet this exposure does not negatively affect work morale.

The Effect of Bias on Employee Suspicions of Coworker Guilt and Likelihood of Peer Reporting

ABSTRACT We explored the association between bias and the perception of a suspect’s guilt in alleged workplace theft. After presenting a case to participants, we asked them to assess the guilt of four possible suspects: two Black (male and female) and two White (male and female). We measured implicit and explicit racial and gender bias, leveraging two implicit association tests adapted from Levinson, Cai, and Young (2010) and two established explicit bias scales. We found that explicit racial bias is significantly associated with the overall perceived likelihood of guilt of the Black male suspect, and implicit racial bias is associated with the probability of selecting the Black male suspect from among the four. These associations disappeared after we provided additional facts about the case and the suspects. We further found that implicit and explicit racial biases are associated with the likelihood of peer reporting in an external investigation. Data Availability: Data are available upon request. JEL Classifications: M49.

Situational Factors Influencing Employee Theft in Supermarket Outlets: A Survey of Kisumu City, Kenya

Employees' theft is an act of stealing, use, or misuse of an employer's asset without his or her consent. Despite the security surveillance measures taken by the supermarket retail outlets, these businesses are yet to have any significant reduction in the theft cases in the supermarkets. The study aimed to establish the effects of situational factors on employees' theft in the supermarket outlets within Kisumu City, Kenya. The objectives of the study were: to assess the effect of prevailing opportunity to steal on employees' theft, to examine the contribution of organizational values and culture to employees' theft, to establish how employees' attributes contribute to theft and to determine the effect of job dissatisfaction on employees' theft in the supermarkets within Kisumu City. The study adopted a cross-sectional qualitative research design. The study was informed by Rational Choice Theory developed by Siegel and McCormick, 2006, and Equity Theory of Employee Motivation established by Adams. In this study, a qualitative survey design was adopted. A convenient sampling technique was used to sample 10 managers, 10 cashiers, and 10 subordinate staff from 10 supermarket outlets within Kisumu City out of the target population of 400 employees. The analyzed demographic data were presented in frequency tables and charts while qualitative data was analyzed thematically. The study revealed that the availability of opportunity to steal is one of the main reasons why employees working in supermarkets indulge in workplace theft. This occurs due to the use of weak monitoring systems to curb theft-related cases by supermarket managers. Besides, the study established that staff who steal from the workplace do not recognize the formal organizational values and practices imposed by the management. As a result, poor organization values and cultural practices have a meaningful effect on the employees in the supermarkets thus influence employees’ theft. This, therefore, means that organizational values guide the employees on what is right or wrong and what is most important in life, hence greatly controls their behavior in the organizations. Moreover, employees with negative personal attributes for instance were more likely inclined towards engaging in criminal behavior such as theft than those who did not. The study recommends that future researchers should conduct a comparative study on the causes of job dissatisfaction and how it contributes to employees' theft. Lastly, the study recommends that further research should be conducted on the overall perception of the workplace theft by employees across the different organizations. Key Words: employees, theft, supermarkets, business, opportunity, organization values DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/10-18-09 Publication date: September 30 th 2020

Alcohol Consumption in Russia and Some Aspects of Public Health.

ContextThe problem of alcohol misuse in Russia is immense; but nonetheless there is a tendency to exaggerate it, which is evident for inside observers. Such exaggeration tends to veil shortcomings of the health care system with responsibility shifted onto the patients, that is, self-inflicted diseases caused by excessive alcohol consumption. The aim of this report is to draw attention to the above-mentioned and other problems related to the alcohol consumption in Russia, not clearly perceptible from the literature, e.g. toxicity of some legally sold alcoholic beverages.Evidence AcquisitionThis report is based on a review of literature and observations by the author during the period 1970 - 2014.ResultsPredictable increase of alcohol consumption after the anti-alcohol campaign facilitated the economical reforms of the early 1990s: workers and some intelligentsia did not oppose privatizations of state-owned enterprises partly due to their drunkenness, involvement in workplace theft and use of equipment for profit, which was often tolerated by the management at that and earlier time.ConclusionsLast time, a gradual change of the alcohol consumption pattern in Russia has been noticed: less heavy binge drinking of vodka, fortified wine and surrogates; more moderate consumption of beer.

Employee Perceptions of Workplace Theft Behavior: A Study Among Supermarket Retail Employees in Malaysia

Employee theft is costly to any business, especially to big retail chain organizations. This research is to study the perception of retail employees on the impact of the individual and organizational factors contributing to workplace theft behavior in supermarkets in Malaysia and to study the mediating effect of intention to steal and the moderating effect of internal control systems. The results proved that individual and organizational factors do influence workplace theft behavior. It is also established that internal control systems moderate the relationship between the intention to steal and workplace theft behavior.

Integrated Theory and Crimes of Trust

The integrated theory first proposed by Elliott et al. (1979), combining strain, social control, and social learning (and sometimes social disorganization) theories, has been repeatedly tested and consistently supported for a wide range of behaviors including licit and illicit substance use, violence, and other forms of illegal behavior. It has not, however, been tested for a class of illegal behaviors best described as crimes of trust, which include different types of fraud, workplace theft, and income tax evasion. This category of offending includes offenses commonly regarded as white collar crime, and also offenses that have been more or less marginal to the study of white collar crime. The present paper tests the integrated theory specifically for crimes of trust in the National Youth Survey Family Study, a national, multigenerational sample of individuals whose focal respondents were 11–17 years old in 1976–1977, and who are now in middle adulthood. Relying on structural equation modeling (SEM), parallel tests are performed for two generations, the focal respondents in early middle age (ages 38–45) and their adult offspring (ages 18–24) for the period 2002–2004.

Perceived psycho-emotional influence of aesthetics, affluence and environmental sophistication on employees’ theft behaviours in the workplace

This study examined employees. perception of workplace theft in six industrial organizations at different situations where aesthetics, affluence and environmental sophistication were presented. Participants were one hundred and forty-four employees (72 males and 72 males) selected from Shell, Mobil, Altec, NBC, Peacock and Safeway Ventures in the south-south and south Eastern parts of Nigeria. A questionnaire was used in collecting data about workplace theft as may be influenced by aesthetics, affluence and environmental sophistication. The Chi-Square Goodness of Fit and Test of Independence were used in analyzing data. Results showed that employees were perceived to engage in workplace theft under the influence of aesthetics ( 2 . = 18.86, 3df, P of employee theft between junior and senior employees ( 2 . = 26.39, df = 9, P theft behaviour of male and female employees ( 2 . = 586.057, df = 5 P previous studies. Implications of the findings were discussed and recommendations provided for policy.

The Utility of Integrity Testing for Controlling Workers’ Compensation Costs

Integrity tests can be a hiring tool to help employers determine which of their prospective employees will be more likely to engage in unproductive, dangerous, or otherwise risky actions on the job. Candidates are surprisingly candid when answering test questions about their workplace theft or drug use, but the tests also have control questions intended to indicate when an applicant provides false answers in an attempt to answer “correctly.” Although tests represent an additional expense in the hiring process, a study of a large hotel chain found that the savings in screening out potentially expensive employees more than made up for the costs of conducting the tests, based on a substantial reduction in workers’ compensation claims. A conservative estimate is that the company experienced a 50 percent one-year return on investment from the test. It is important to note that the tests do not violate U.S. employment laws, as data show that the tests create no adverse impact on protected groups.

Rationales for Employee Theft in Hospitality: Excuses, Excuses

This study aims to identify the prevalence of employee theft and rationalisations for taking company property, to help practitioners reduce workplace theft. The characteristics of workplaces where theft is common are identified, the items most likely to be stolen, the characteristics of the likely culprits, and their justifications for stealing. The study uses a questionnaire to collect quantitative and qualitative data from hospitality workers, whose responses are analysed to determine the severity of employee theft and rationalisations for taking company property. Employee theft is shown to be common, and strongly associated with workplaces where under-staffing and inadequate training are also common. Casual workers, young people, and those paid least, are found to be those most tolerant of theft. By addressing the relationship between social consensus, moral reasoning, and petty theft, the discussion identifies causes of petty theft from an ethics perspective.

Rationales for Employee Theft in Hospitality: Excuses, Excuses

This study aims to identify the prevalence of employee theft and rationalisations for taking company property, to help practitioners reduce workplace theft. The characteristics of workplaces where theft is common are identified, the items most likely to be stolen, the characteristics of the likely culprits, and their justifications for stealing. The study uses a questionnaire to collect quantitative and qualitative data from hospitality workers, whose responses are analysed to determine the severity of employee theft and rationalisations for taking company property. Employee theft is shown to be common, and strongly associated with workplaces where under-staffing and inadequate training are also common. Casual workers, young people, and those paid least, are found to be those most tolerant of theft. By addressing the relationship between social consensus, moral reasoning, and petty theft, the discussion identifies causes of petty theft from an ethics perspective.

Using Published Arbitration Decisions to Develop Teaching Examples, Cases and Exercises

A sample of arbitration decisions are published every year on a wide variety of topics including workplace fighting, theft, insubordination, attendance problems, alcohol or drug abuse, and sexual harassment. These published cases provide interesting, timely, and complex examples of actual events. Using this material as a basis, unique, realistic cases and exercises can be developed to focus on many different workplace topics.

Ethical Values, Trust and Problem-Solving Expectations Among Potential Foodservice Employees

Business management throughout the world has recently received a large measure of negative publicity, with a plethora of high profile examples of calumny being reported among managers; employees were often among those seen to be most negatively affected. Within the workplace employees are generally reliant upon and expect a high standard of ethical behavior among those who are appointed to manage the organizations; such a reliance upon managerial rectitude is no less evident in industries such as foodservice. Yet relatively little is known about the expectations and ethical ideals that potential staff bring to this industry in regard to management's problem-solving styles in the face of ethical dilemmas such as those involving theft. This study was completed among a sample of university undergraduate business students in a major Australian tourism destination. Amajority of respondents were found more likely to anticipate a company image protection response, and less likely to anticipate a justice for all perspective among management; results were most notable for those respondents who would report an aspiration to higher levels of personal integrity. In contrast, a smaller group of respondents were revealed to more likely value competence over integrity; these individuals would anticipate higher levels of a justice for all managerial response. Two distinct groups of respondents have been identified in this study: those individuals who would more highly prize the ethic of competence above that of integrity and who would have positive expectations about management problem-solving, and those individuals who would value the integrity ethic over competence and who would express an elevated level of pessimism regarding the expected response of foodservice management to a situation involving workplace theft. The implications of these results for foodservice industry, for industry education and for future research, are explored.

Workplace theft: An analysis of student-employee offenders and job attributes

This paper identifies characteristics and behaviors of college students who steal from their places of employment. As such, the present study focuses on the job-related lifestyle behaviors and characteristics of students that influence their opportunities and likelihood of stealing from their place of employment. The data come from self-administered surveys conducted with 1,531 college students in the fall of 1996. Results reveal job characteristics that increase opportunity and past criminal behavior are the most influential predictors of individuals who engage in workplace theft. Policy implications are discussed.

The Nineteenth-Century Decline of Custom, and its Impact on Theories of ‘Workplace Theft’ and ‘White Collar’ Crime

The Nineteenth-Century Decline of Custom, and its Impact on Theories of ‘Workplace Theft’ and ‘White Collar’ Crime

Organization of Ownership and Workplace Theft in China

This article examines the relationship between the organization of ownership and workplace theft in China. The authors argue that China offers a particularly useful context for studying this topic because it is one of the few countries in the world where multiple forms of ownership have become common following recent economic reforms. The authors consider two basic forms of ownership: public and private. Using data from a sample of inmates in the Chinese city of Tianjin, the authors assess the effect of these different forms of ownership on perceived levels of theft in the inmates’ organizations prior to incarceration. The results indicate that, contrary to what might be expected on the basis ofWestern theory and research, public ownership is associated with higher levels of workplace theft than private ownership. The authors suggest that public ownership in China has lead to a diffusion of responsibility and an organizational culture that is conducive to workplace theft.

Personality Predictors of Retail Employee Theft and Counterproductive Behavior

ABSTRACT Recent reviews (Ones, Viswesvaren, & Schmidt, 1993) have demonstrated that honesty tests are valid predictors of theft and other forms of counterproductive behavior. Research has also shown that such tests are significantly correlated with measures of conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism; three of the “Big-Five” traits (Sacket & Wanek, 1996). While these traits do predict work performance, it is not clear that they can be utilized to assess potential for counterproductive behavior. A sample of 218 retail sales employees completed the conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism scales of the NEO Five Factor Inventory (NFFI). These results were correlated with workplace theft, absenteeism, tardiness, lack of cooperation, and other forms of counterproductive behavior. Results indicated that these three “Big-Five” traits, especially conscientiousness, can be used to predict theft, absenteeism, tardiness, lack of cooperation, taking long breaks, and excess socializing. Furthermore, ...

Book Review Section

Books reviewed in this article:James O'Toole. Leading Change: Overcoming the Ideology of Comfort and the Tyranny of Custom.Serge Moscovici and Willem Doise. Conflict and Consensus: A General Theory of Collective Decisions.Rochelle Kopp. The Rice‐Paper Ceiling: Breaking through Japanese Corporate Culture.K.S. Yang and A.P. Yu (Editors). [The Psychology and Behavior of the Chinese: Concepts and Methods (1992)].Alfie Kohn. Punished by Rewards: The Trouble with Gold Stars, Incentive Plans, A's, Praise, and Other Bribes.Bob Nelson. 1001 Ways to Reward Employees.Thomas B. Wilson. Innovative Reward Systems for the Changing Workplace.Margaret Thaler Singer with Janja Lalich. Cults in Our Midst: The Hidden Menace in Our Everyday Lives.Marianne Minor. Preventing Workplace Violence: Positive Management Strategies.Michael Mantell with Steve Albrecht. Ticking Bombs: Defusing Violence in the Workplace.Thomas Gabor. Everybody Does It! Crimes by the Public.Lynn Tylczak and Thomas E. Sheets. Preventing Workplace Theft: They're Stealing From You.William P. Bridges and Wayne J. Villemez. The Employment Relationship: Causes and Consequences of Modern Personnel Administration.Jerald Greenberg (Ed.). Organizational Behavior: The State of the Science.Ronald R. Sims and Serbrenia J. Sims. Changes and Challenges for the Human Resources Professional.George Henderson. Cultural Diversity in the Workplace: Issues and Strategies.David K. Banner and T Elaine Gape. Designing Effective Organizations.Daniel Druckman and Robert A. Bjork (Eds). Learning, Remembering, Believing: Enhancing Human Performance.Edward E. Gordon, Ronald R. Morgan, and Judith A. Ponticell. Future Work: The Revolution Reshaping American Business.Joseph S. Wholey, Harry P. Hatry, and Kathryn E. Newcomer (Eds.). Handbook of Practical Program Evaluation.Philip Bobko. Correlation and Regression: Principles and Applications for Industrial/Organizational Psychology and Management.Ralph Windle. The Poetry of Business Life: An Anthology.Denis Waitley. Empires of the Mind Lessons to Lead and Succeed in a Knowledge‐Based World.Walter C. Borman (Ed.). Performance Evaluation in Organizations (a Volume in the International Library of Management).HOW TOLMAN'S LEARNING THEORY GAVE BIRTH TO TASK CYCLE THEORY CLARK L. WILSONInspiration 4.0 (for Windows).

Criterion-Related Validity of a Preemployment Integrity Inventory: A Large Scale Between-Groups Comparison

This study was conducted to examine whether the Honesty scale of the Personnel Selection Inventory differentiates a counterproductive group of individuals from a randomly-selected group of employment applicants. The Honesty subscale measures applicants' attitudes toward theft and counterproductivity. In this study, a group of 100,000 job applicants randomly selected from a normative data base was compared to a group of 1,073 employees from a variety of industries. Each of the latter group of employees had been hired regardless of their Honesty scale scores and had been terminated for acts of counterproductivity including workplace theft. This counterproductive group scored significantly lower on the Honesty scale than the comparison group of applicants. Also, approximately 43% of the counterproductive group admitted to past theft but only 4% of the comparison group did so.

CRITERION-RELATED VALIDITY OF A PREEMPLOYMENT INTEGRITY INVENTORY: A LARGE SCALE BETWEEN-GROUPS COMPARISON

This study was conducted to examine whether the Honesty scale of the Personnel Selection Inventory differentiates a counterproductive group of individuals from a randomly-selected group of employment applicants. The Honesty subscale measures applicants' attitudes toward theft and counterproductivity. In this study, a group of 100,000 job applicants randomly selected from a normative data base was compared to a group of 1,073 employees from a variety of industries. Each of the latter group of employees had been hired regardless of their Honesty scale scores and had been terminated for acts of counterproductivity including workplace theft. This counterproductive group scored significantly lower on the Honesty scale than the comparison group of applicants. Also, approximately 43% of the counterproductive group admitted to past theft but only 4% of the comparison group did so.