Business losses due to employee theft are estimated to approach $200 billion annually in the US. Experts pose many reasons for employee theft, but provide few prevention strategies for human resource managers. The various causes of employee theft are explored, from employee personality characteristics, to the social environment, to flaws in the organization's control system. From this analysis, guidelines for theft prevention strategies are offered. Since strategies may involve top-down control or trust-building experiences for employees and managers, HR managers are encouraged to implement those strategies that fit their organization. .
Headnote.
Business losses due to employee theft are estimated to approach $200 billion annually. Why do employees steal? Experts propose many reasons for employee theft, but provide few prevention strategies for human resource managers. In this article, the authors explore the various causes of employee theft, from employee personality characteristics, to the social environment, to flaws in the organization's control system. From this analysis, guidelines for theft prevention strategies are offered. Since strategies may involve top-down control or trust-building experiences for employees and managers, HR managers are encouraged to implement those strategies that fit their organization.1 2000 John Wiley & Sons;, Inc. .
Introduction .
The costs of employee theft in American industry have been estimated to approach $200 billion annually (Murphy, 1993), making theft one of the most prevalent and costly problems confronting businesses today (Giacalone & Greenberg;, 1997). Employee theft is ten times more costly than the nation's street crime and has been blamed for 30 to 50% of all business failures (Bullard & Resnik;, 1993). Further statistics reveal that these figures do not stem from a few isolated cases of grand theft (Emshwiller, 1993) but from repeated instances of minor theft which, when accumulated over time, sum to massive totals (Lipman & McGraw;, 1988).
