Employee Theft
Each year employers lose large sums of money to employee theft. Often times this theft is not seen as stealing by the employee but is seen as an employee right or benefit, or maybe just not thought about in terms such as theft. The use of company products, such as copy or fax machines, for personal use, taking home paper clips or pens, and running personal errands on company time are all examples of employee theft. So what is employee theft? What different actions are considered employee theft? Are employers really losing money from these minor circumstances? What is the employee’s ethical responsibility and obligations when it comes to employee theft? Why do employees feel justified or deserving of their actions? What can employers do to prevent this theft from occurring? These questions and others that pertain to employee theft will be answered in the following research. I will then conclude with the reason behind the selection of this topic and my own personal ethical view of employee theft.
What is Employee Theft?
What is employee theft? Employee theft is defined as “any stealing, use or misuse of their employer’s assets without permission to do so” (Walsh, 2000). Employee theft is in a category also known as employee deviance. Further broken down employee theft is divided into two subcategories property deviance and production deviance. “Property deviance includes employee behaviors that involve the unauthorized taking, control, or transfer of money or property of the formal work organization by an employee, either for the employee’s own use or for sale to another, during the course of occupational activity” (Kulas, McInnenerey, Demuth & Jadwinski, 2007). Production deviance has also been referred to as work withdrawal behavior. Certain work withdrawal behavior “can
