Purpose
The article Who Stole the Money, and When? Individual and Situational Determinants of Employee Theft? by Greenberg discusses an essential issue of employee theft and tends to highlight the potential motives of this crime (Greenberg 986). It attempts to determine relevant strategies to minimize the drawbacks of this social issue.
Design/Methodology/Approach
As for the methodology, the critical variables are moral, proximal, and decimal options and their impact on the behavior of the employees was measured by using 2 x 2 x 2 factorial research study with 270 participants (Greenberg 911). The primary goal of this experiment was to design a questionnaire and collect the answers from the respondents of the research study. In this instance, they were given a reward for participation, but they were not paid as much as it was expected. They were offered an opportunity to steal the remaining money from the basket (Greenberg 911). In this case, it was told that the money was sponsored by the individual employees of the firm such as managers or by the overall organization (Greenberg 911).
Findings
The results were rather surprising, as the employees did not experience a need to steal from the individuals, but taking the remaining amount from the company was regarded as normal (Greenberg 911). In the context of this experiment, it was also determined the reasoning for the actions of the employees by highlighting the moral principles and the need for the ethics program. In the end, it was revealed that applying the concepts of ethics program would be beneficial for minimizing theft among the employees, and offering feedback about its simultaneous influence on individuals and organization would also help decrease the percentage of these crimes in the firm.
Research Limitations
The critical drawbacks include personal bias of the researcher due to his direct involvement in the research study. Another potential source of bias is the recent implementation of the ethics program and the inability to assess the validity of the presented information. Furthermore, the absence of the required amount of secondary data and inconsistency of the research methods could also be regarded as major weaknesses and limitations of this research study.
Practical and Social Implications
As for the practical implications of the research study, it remains apparent that the author emphasizes a critical significance of the ethical policies and standards in the company’s corporate culture (Greenberg 999). In this case, devoting substantial attention to these programs will not only decrease the percentage of thefts but also modify organizational values and visions. In turn, the article also focuses on various strategies to prevent theft in the company. Offering constant feedback and referring to the consequences of theft by using internal communication can have a positive influence on reducing the levels of theft in the organization (Greenberg 999).
In this case, the management has to pay attention to the fact that committing theft not only damages company’s financial stability and image but also has an adverse influence on the employees, as they are composing elements of the firm. Lastly, the findings acquired from the article can be utilized as a basis for the future research and intensify the concerns in the society about this issue. Overall, it could be said that this article has a positive impact on the understanding the causes of theft, explains its negative consequences at both organizational and individual levels, offers prevention strategies such as feedback and the development of ethics program, and supplies the researchers with the findings to gather the remaining information in future.
Originality and Value
Despite being negatively perceived in the society, the issue of theft continues to exist, and developing a clear understanding of this phenomenon has a beneficial impact on the commonly accepted behavior and the improvement of the social norms. In turn, theft is one of the most common problems at work, as the employees do not have a clear understanding of its consequences and impact on the overall organizational profitability and individual users. Consequently, the author’s ability to emphasize the essence of this social issue and highlight that development of the ethics programs can decrease the percentage of thefts at the workplace while ensuring safety at both organizational and individual levels. Simultaneously, the researcher’s ability to see the issue from dissimilar angles, propose a relevant strategy, and define motives for the employees’ actions makes this study unique and valuable to the society and offer a clear rationale for conducting subsequent researches regarding this topic.
Critique positive
The primary strength of this article is the ability of the author to view the problem from the different angles. Emphasizing dissimilar variables such as moral principles, the level of development of ethics program and policies, and proximal variable related to clearly understanding who is the victim of the theft helped see the determinants of the issue and understand the potential reasons for the existence of this negative phenomenon (Greenberg 990). Furthermore, its experimental design assisted in depicting the social problem of theft from the organization in the natural settings. Overall, this article created a perception that theft can be prevented, as a new influential mechanism is determined in the form of the feedback and the development of ethics programs.
Critique Negative
Nonetheless, the overall study and its theoretical and methodological frameworks tend to have some drawbacks. Some of them could be referred to as the limitations of the research. In this case, the intervention of the researcher in the study was great, as it is necessary to manipulate the variables to find a correlation between them (Greenberg 1000). Another aspect that could have contributed to high bias was the recent implementation of the program, as this matter might question the validity and reliability of the outcomes. Alternatively, the lack of the sufficient analysis of the secondary data and the limited number of measures could be regarded as crucial limitations. Overall, these weaknesses question the applicability of the research findings in the similar settings and underline the fact that conducting research in the recent future was reasonable.
Work Cited
Greenberg, Jerald. “Who Stole the Money, and When? Individual and Situational Determinants of Employee Theft” Organizational Behavior & Human Decision Processes 89.1 (2002): 985-1003. Print.