THEFT IN THE WORKPLACE

OLCU 350
ALDO ACEVEDO
CARMEN BROWN
JEANETTE KEYS
LINDSAY BAILEY
VON BIRD

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Analysis:
Ethical dilemmas and conflicts
Ethical decisions & Social responsibility

Synthesize
Organizational Challenges with theft
Why managers are concerned with theft
Best practices

Evaluate
Why is theft in the workplace important
What are the responsibilities in regards to theft

Discuss
Our recommendations
How to address theft in the workplace
What have we learned?

ANALYSIS: THEFT IN THE WORKPLACE,

ETHICAL DILEMMAS AND CONFLICTS
Theft in the workplace is one of the leading causes of lost profits within
organizations in todays world.
This unfortunate occurrence comes in many forms, from employees
stealing to customers, annually costing retailers an average of $42 billion
dollars per year in, averaging about $402 per household (Fisher, 2015).
Nearly one third of all employees commit some degree of employee
theft. It is also estimated that a third of United States corporate
bankruptcies are a direct result of employee theft.

ANALYSIS: ETHICAL DECISIONS & SOCIAL

RESPONSIBILITY
There are 6 stages to Kohlbergs stages of moral development. From the beginning
stages (Childhood, Adolescence youth, Adolescence youth, Adulthood, Mature
adulthood stage 5, and Mature adulthood stage 6.
Moral development are the stages that a human being goes through throughout their
lifetime where they learn what is right and wrong.
Humans from the early stage of childhood learn obedience and rules through
punishment avoidance.
Once they reach Mature adulthood, people should show Universal Ethical
Principles such as justice, equality, fairness for everyone, and universal human
rights (Collins, 2012)
All of these responsibilities are broken when a person or employee commits a crime.

ANALYSIS: ETHICAL DECISIONS & SOCIAL

RESPONSIBILITY CONTINUED
There are many forms of theft in the workplace from direct stealing
cash/inventory, to stealing company time from taking extended breaks.
These different forms of theft constitute different ethical decisions, but
all which ultimately lead to the same ethical and social responsibilities
being broken.

SYNTHESIZE: ORGANIZATIONS CHALLENGES

WITH THEFT
Employee theft can cause a plethora
of challenges
Managers (Difficult Hiring
Process)
Organizations (Loss of
goods/time)
Theft represents a cost directly
incurred by the organization for
hiring untrustworthy employees.
Employees can steal money,
products, or time(Collins, 2012).
The Chamber of Commerce
estimates 75% of employees steal
from the workplace (Gaille, 2013).

Demographics of Employee Theft

DR. Degree
B.A. Degree
Some College
H.S. Degree
Men
Woman
0.00%

50.00%

100.00%

SYNTHESIZE: WHY IS THEFT A CONCERN TO

MANAGERS IN ORGANIZATIONS?
One challenge is how to determine if
someone is trustworthy.
Studies have showed that over forty
percent of reviewed resumes had lies

about educational background. False

information on resumes can suggest
a lack of ethics and trustworthiness.
According to CBS News, a typical
organization can lose 5% of its
annual revenue to employee fraud.

When added to the Gross Domestic Product, the potential global

fraud loss can be more than $2.9 trillion.
Nearly one third of all employees commit some degree of
employee theft. It is also estimated that a third of United States
corporate bankruptcies are a direct result of employee theft.

The Chamber of Commerce estimates 75% of employees steal

from the workplace. Most of which do so repeatedly (Gaille,
2013).

SYNTHESIZE: BEST PRACTICES

Implement a thorough hiring process

Background checks
Credit background checks
Criminal background checks
Check social media
Integrity test
Check resumes

Integrity test can also help managers

and organizations gather information
about a job candidates behavior and
attitudes toward unethical workplace
activities.

Integrity tests may take any of the

following four approaches:
Direct admission of performing an illegal
or questionable activity: I stole money
from my previous employer.
Opinions regarding illegal or questionable
behavior: It is ok for people to steal from
employers.
Personality traits related to dishonesty: I
constantly think about stealing from my
employer.
Reaction to a hypothetical situation
featuring dishonest behavior: If I saw an
employee steal money, I would ignore the
situation and wait for the boss to find
out (Collins, 2012)

EVALUATE: WHY IS THEFT IMPORTANT TO

STAKEHOLDERS
Theft has many negative outcomes and
results in losses for organizations and
businesses. Companies lose more than
$40 billion annually to employee theft
and dishonesty, a figure that increases
each year (Gaille, 2013).
Stealing is morally wrong, therefore most
individuals attempt to stay away from
immoral businesses and people.

Theft becomes a concern to stakeholders and the community when

they are investing their time, money, and even private information
(Social security numbers, credit card numbers, addresses, etc.) with
these businesses.
Stakeholders Interest

Successful companies

Information security

Ethical practices

Stable public image to get more investors

EVALUATE: HOW COMPLICATED ARE

DECISIONS ABOUT THEFT IN AN
ORGANIZATION?
There are legal matters that make it complicated when terminating employees
when caught stealing.
Thoroughly checking into the theft and making an honest, unbiased decision
to fire the employee reduces the risk of losing a lawsuit in case the employee
was innocent (Christopher, 2003).
Once an initial investigation has been conducted the organization can:
Place the employee on administrative leave
Suspend the employee from work
Transfer the employee to another location
Critical that immediate action happens once evidence is discovered
that leads to believe a theft occurred

EVALUATE: ORGANIZATION/PUBLIC
RESPONSIBILITY TO THE COMMUNITY
Organizations Responsibility
Honest services to the public
Customers information protected
Provide a safe shopping/working
environment
Provide an establish Code of Ethics
Provide Ethics Training/Workshops

Public Responsibility
Bring honest and ethical behavior to
the workplace/community
Display ethical behavior to promote
healthy working relationships
As human beings we have the
responsibility to encourage honesty
and trustworthiness

DISCUSS: TEAM RECOMMENDATION

Our recommendation would be to establish solid practice for hiring including
Resume Check Best predictor of future performance is part performance
40% of recent college graduates are prone to lie in their resumes (Collins, 2012)

Reference Checks Opportunity to check their ethics of job candidates

Ask if they would hire the person again?

Background Checks This is more precise than a reference check

Academic accomplishments, criminal records and credit checks

Find people whose values are the same as the values of the company? says
Adam M. Kleinbaum, When peoples value differ, they might not be accepted as
well or as happy (Anderson, 2015).

DISCUSS: GROUPS HOW ADDRESS THEFT IN

THE WORKPLACE
Catalogue Everything:
Document everything incase the employee has to be terminated

Evaluate the solution at hand:

Was there palace behind the heft? Is there current policy that can correct the
situation?

Should you call the Police?

Is the theft big enough to involve the police?

Supervise the employee closely:

While the situation gets sorted keep a close eye on the offender.

Prevent the next occurrence:

Provide a clear zero-tolerance policy regarding workplace theft

DISCUSS: WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?

Preventing theft is the job of the organization as much as the employee
itself
Providing lockers for employee to safeguard their items can help
Providing annual refresher training on theft and the organizations policy

Well establish policy will ensure that rules are easy to fallow and follow
thru will establish expectations of bad behavior
Termination of the employees should not be the first answer to theft
unless it was stated in the organizations policy
We should work on making sure that theft is prevented if at all possible

REFERENCES

Anderson, J. (2014). 5 Steps To Deal With Employee Theft-Bplans Blog. Retrieved October 18, 2016, from
http://articles.bplanc.com/5-steps-to-deal-with-employee-theft/

Christopher, D. A. (2003). Small business pilfering: the trusted employee(s). Business Ethics: A European Review, 12(3),
284-297.
Collins, D. (2012) Business Ethics: How to Design and Manage Ethical Organizations. Hoboken, NJ, John Wiley & Sons
Fisher, A. (2015, January 26). U.S. retail workers are No. 1in employee theft. Retrieved October 15, 2016, from
http://fortune.com/2015/01/26/us-retail-worker-theft/
[3] Gaille, B. (2013, October 22). 26 Jaw Dropping Employee Theft Statistics. Retrieved October 15, 2016 from:
http://brandongaille.com/26-jaw-dropping-employee-theft-statistics/
Lagorio-Chafkin, C. (2010, April 01). How to Improve Your Hiring Practice. Retrieved October, 18, 2016, from
http://www.inc.com/guides/2010/04/improving-hiring-practices.html