NCJ Number
72398
Journal
Psychological Reports Volume: 47 Issue: 1 Dated: (August 1980) Pages: 71-77
Date Published
1980
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Three major forms of employees' deviance (theft, problem drinking, and illicit drug use) are examined; incidence rates and attitudinal correlates of employees' deviant behavior are documented.
Abstract
The study specifically hypothesized that the more deviant employees' attitudes tended to be in the three areas of deviance, the more likely they were to engage in within-store deviance during paid work hours. The study sample consisted of 39 employees from a relatively heterogeneous selection of companies. Employees ranged in age from 16 to 57 years; 64 percent were females and 36 percent were males. A total of 49 percent were white, 38 percent were black, and 13 percent were Hispanic, American Indian, or Asian. All employees anonymously answered the Personnel Security Inventory which measured attitudes toward theft (dishonesty scale), violence (violence scale), and alcohol/drugs (drug abuse scale). As predicted, the dishonesty scale scores and the violence attitude scores significantly correlated with the total estimated dollar amount of all merchandise stolen by employees. The drug-abuse attitude scale scores significantly correlated with the number of times an employee came to work intoxicated from illicit, nonprescribed drug use. Scores on all three predictor variables were significantly interrelated; the dishonesty scores reliably correlated with both the violence and the drug-abuse scores. The relationships among the attitude scores indicated that deviant employees seem to have a 'general moral permissiveness' toward any form of deviance. Consequently, they are cognitively predisposed to engage in a variety of crimes against their employers. Diligent screening of prospective employees is recommended to eliminate much within-store deviance by employees. Thirteen references and tables of test results are provided.