Organizational Control of Employee Theft - A Test of Deterrence Hypotheses

• NCJ Number: 87998
• Author(s): P F Parilla
• Date Published: 1982
• Length: 230 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Justice; US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Sale Source: UMI Dissertation Services
• Publication Type: Thesis/Dissertation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS. University of Minnesota - doctoral thesis

Annotation

Data on employee theft collected from hospitals and their employees in three metropolitan areas showed that one-third of the employees stole from their employers, although most pilfered on an infrequent basis, and that organizational practices commonly associated with control in the workplace did not deter theft.

Abstract

In 1978, 21 hospitals with a minimum of 250 employees agreed to participate in the study. Of the group, 16 were in Minneapolis-St. Paul, 3 in Cleveland, and 2 in Dallas-Fort Worth. Interviews were conducted with 120 executives. In a random sample of 4,111 employees from the hospitals, approximately 33 percent of the respondents admitted they had taken some hospital property. Only 1 percent reported stealing regularly, contributing almost one-half of the total incidents. The proportion of the work force involved in stealing varied among hospitals, with the lowest rate being 16.8 percent of the work force stealing and the highest being 40 percent. Office and clerical supplies were stolen most often, followed by thermometers, plastic gloves, and hospital linen. Such theft was deterrable. Significant negative relationships existed between perceptions of certainty of detection and employee theft and between perceptions of severity of punishment and employee theft. Tables and approximately 200 references are included.