ABSTRACT
Employees in American business steal between 8.5- and 10-billon dola year. Obviously, business is aware of employee dishonesty. Some employ guards at sensitive merchandise-handling points; others require employees to carry company-provided handbags or to leave their coats in company-monitored cloakrooms. Several companies utilize undercover investigators and plainclothes detectives, aided by electronic security measures, to detect thievery on the part of employees. Of course, some employees steal a great deal more, others considerably less. he dishonest employee uses considerable ingenuity. In order to increase employee work motivation and to decrease turnover, management may choose one of two alternative courses. A group of six employees could give no reason other than "impulse" for their theft. Many of the ex-employees blamed work conditions: boredom, long periods of inactivity, low commissions, supervisors who treated them poorly. Bosses of the discharged employees in all three groups rated them "good" or better on a performance-review system.
