Why Do Employees Steal?
Among the many challenges companies experience in business is retails shrinkage. A recent survey revealed that employee theft is among the primary cause of retail shrinkage in business. Various studies have assessed the reasons behind increased employee theft in companies and most of the reasons are associated with organizational-employee relationships.
One of the reasons as to why employees steal is because of the organizational factors at workplace. Some employees steal because they feel that they are not well compensated for the effort they put in various activities at their workplaces. Therefore, employees feel there is some form of inequity resulting to theft lined to underpayment. Therefore, organizations need to promote workplace justice and treat employees well to minimize cases of employee theft (Colquitt, Noe, & Jackson, 2002).
Employee theft has also been associated with individual factors. For instance, some employees steal for their personal financial gains. Some of the individual factors that drive the theft behavior in some individuals is based on financial aspects that re beyond a person’s control. An example is where an employee steals from his organizations to solve problems related to drug abuse and gambling habits. Some employees might also have individual characteristics and attitudes that motivate them to steal from their organizations despite efforts to satisfy them. Therefore, organizations should assess various predictive behaviors, such as alcohol and gambling addictions before employing someone. This is because some employees working in private and public institutions have stolen significant amounts of money or shared organizational information for monetary reasons. However, these habits should not be used as direct disqualifications for competent and skilful job candidates. Organizations have to identify these behaviors and have measures in place in form of rehabilitation programs to help such employees overcome some of these problems.
References
Colquitt, J. A., Noe, R. A., & Jackson, C. L. (2002). Justice in teams: Antecedents and
consequences of procedural justice climate. Personnel Psychology, 55, 83-109
Moorthy, K.M., Ratnam, N., Somasundram, & Arokiasmy, L. (2011). A study on the workplace
theft behaviour of employees in supermarkets in Malaysia.