Theft by Employees in Work Organizations

• NCJ Number: 87464
• Author(s): J P Clark; R C Hollinger
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 311 pages
• Grant Number(s): 79-NI-AX-0090
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Justice; US Dept of Justice NIJ Pub
• Corporate Author: University of Minnesota
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Data from 47 business corporations in three cities formed the basis of an examination of the nature and extent of employee theft and other deviant behaviors and possible measures to deal with them.

Abstract

The corporations included 16 retail stores, 21 general hospitals, and 10 electronics manufacturing firms with 150 to 10,000 workers. Data came from the responses of 9,175 employees to a mailed questionnaire, interviews with 247 executives, and personal interviews with 256 employees. The unauthorized use of the employee discount privilege was the most commonly reported theft activity, with 29 percent of the respondents reporting misuse of this fringe benefit during the past year. In hospitals, 27 percent of the employees reported taking medical supplies from the ward, and 8 percent reported taking medications intended for patients. In manufacturing firms, 14 percent of the employees reported taking raw materials or components. In all three industry sectors almost two-thirds of the respondents reported taking overly long lunch and coffee breaks during the past year, 11 to 16 percent reported purposely slow or sloppy workmanship, and from one-fifth to one-third used sick leave when not actually ill. In addition, 3 percent of the hospital employees, 8 percent of the retail employees, and 13 percent of the manufacturing employees said that they had come to work in the past year while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The employees who reported above-average theft were likely to participate more than the average in production and time deviance as well. Employees who stole tended to be younger and never married. Employee theft is not simply a special form of street crime. Firms which signal to the employees that taking company property is theft, that establish procedures to detect employee theft, and which are selective in whom they choose to employ generally have lower levels of employee theft. Organizations must have a conspicuous and consistent climate of concern about the control of internal theft if they hope to significantly affect their employees' behavior. Data tables and a list of 102 references are provided.