This document discusses common unethical workplace behaviors such as misusing company time and resources, employee theft, and failing to honor commitments. Specifically, it notes that misusing time, such as extended breaks or personal internet use, is the most common issue according to surveys. Employee theft also costs companies billions annually, with stolen items ranging from office supplies to much more. Further, failing to acknowledge good work or keep promises damages employee motivation and commitment over time. Organizational behavior research suggests these issues stem from a lack of incentives or challenges within jobs as well as psychological distancing from the consequences of unethical actions.

1. How a lot of
employees cheat a
little at work
By: Kendall Wenzke,
Samuella Takyi-Buachie,
Sara Holden, Bilal Khan,
Puyu Zheng

2. Unethical Behaviors
Here are everyday unethical behaviors that happen in the workplace:
● Misusing Company Time & Resources
○ Time Card Fraud: Clocking the time, but not actually working
○ Lunch breaks: Taking longer lunch breaks and still getting paid
○ Surfing the net
● Employee Theft
○ Pencils, Pens, and Copy Paper
● Failure to Honor Commitments
○ Blaming others for your mistakes
○ Managers not keeping promises on extra day off, more pay, etc.

3. Misusing Company Time
Many times you see employees not doing “actual work” during
work hours, or abusing their pay time in the workplace. Ever
wonder why this happens so frequently?

4. Misusing Company Time (Cont.)
● According to the Ethics Resource Center, the number one unethical behavior that
employees commit is misuse of company time.
● Misuse of time is defined as any behavior that misrepresents the actual number
of hours present at work, with or without the complicity of coworkers.1
○ Covering for someone who shows up late
○ Surfing the net
○ Altering a time sheet
○ Taking a longer lunch break
1.http://www.inceptiontechnologies.com/blog/workforce-management/time-fraud-is-the-most-common-unethical-
workplace-behavior/

5. Misusing Company Time (Cont.)
● One of the biggest culprits of the misuse of company time is surfing the internet
on websites unrelated to work.
○ According to a recent Salary.com survey 64% of employees visit non-work
related websites everyday.
■ 39% of that group spend < 1 hour per week
■ 29% of that group spend 2 hours per week
■ 21% of that group spend 5 hours per week
■ 3% of that group spend 10+ hours per week
○ The websites that keep employees most off task are Facebook, LinkedIn,
and Amazon
1. http://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/2012/07/17/employees-really-do-waste-time-at-
work/#16cfb1f62412

6. Misusing Company Time (Cont.)
● According to the Salary.com survey previously discussed, respondents say that
the reasons they slack off at work are:
○ They do not feel challenged enough in their jobs
○ They work too many hours
○ The company does not give sufficient incentive to work harder
○ They are unsatisfied with their career
○ They are just bored
1. http://www.forbes.com/sites/cherylsnappconner/2012/07/17/employees-really-do-waste-time-at-
work/#16cfb1f62412

7. Misusing Company Time (Cont.)
How does this relate to Organizational Behavior?
● Misusing company time is a form of Production Deviance, which is known as
“behaviors that intentionally reduce the efficiency of work output, such as
wasting resources.”1
○ Employees who chose to ‘waste’ their workday doing non-work related
things are significantly slowing down the progress of the company, and
depending on whether it’s a group project, could be slowing down many
others, as well as themselves.
1. McGraw Hill Textbook. Chapter 1, pg. 32

8. Employee Theft
According to Statistic Brain Research Institute, $50,000,000,000 worth of office
goods were stolen last year.
● Men stole about 20% more goods than women did in the office
● It was also proven that employees with a higher degree were LESS likely to
steal something from the workplace

9. Employee Theft (Cont.) To the left is a Pie Chart
we created from Statistic
Brain 1
that helps you to
understand the depth of
how much money
employees are ‘stealing’
every year. What we
learned was that, most of
the time, employees are
costing the company
thousands upon
thousands of dollars,
rather than just stealing
something simple, like a
pen.
1. http://www.statisticbrain.com/employee-theft-statistics/

10. Employee Theft (Cont.)
● According to the Fortune.com article, “Globally, dishonest [retail] employees are
behind about 28% of inventory losses...employee theft accounts for 43% of lost
revenue”. 1
○ This proves that it is not only Corporate employees that steal, it can be in any industry that
employees steal from their respective company.
● According to The Shulman Center,The US Commerce said that “75% of
employees steal from the workplace repeatedly”.2
○ This is completely shocking because it is morally wrong to steal.
1. http://fortune.com/2015/01/26/us-retail-worker-theft/
2. http://www.employeetheftsolutions.com/facts.htm

11. Employee Theft (Cont.)
So, the remaining question is, why do employees steal?
● Employees steal for a wide variety of reasons: personal or financial problems,
because they can, or have done it before without getting caught, or they could
just be a bad person
● Fox Business suggests that it is more pertinent in smaller companies since the
responsibilities for each employee is greater1
1.http://www.foxbusiness.com/features/2014/03/04/understanding-why-employees-steal-and-how-to-stop-it.html

12. Employee Theft (Cont.)
● Dan Ariely suggests that the less people relate a good with cash, the more likely they are to
steal it.
○ In a study conducted, Ariely added a condition where some participants were paid in
tokens, which they knew they could quickly exchange for real money. But just having
that one step of separation resulted in a significant increase in cheating.
○ “Our willingness to cheat increases as we gain psychological distance from the action”
○ Because of this, many people do not have a problem stealing from work because they
do not relate the stapler they are taking from their office, to money spent by the
company.
1.http://business.time.com/2012/06/18/why-almost-all-of-us-cheat-and-steal/

13. Employee Theft (Cont.)
How does this relate to Organizational Behavior?
● Chapter 1 discusses Counterproductive Behavior, which McGraw Hill
defines as “employee behaviors that intentionally hinder organizational
goal accomplishment”.1
● Why Employees Steal is more directly related to the term Property
Deviance which refers to “behaviors that harm the organization’s assets
and possessions”1
because this directly relates to theft in the office place.
1. McGraw Textbook, Ch. 1, pg. 32

14. Failure to Honor Commitments
● Failing to honor commitments in the workplace such as blaming others for your
mistakes or managers not keeping promises, such as an extra day off or a pay
raise, occur often.
● According to Entrepreneur.com, the above examples are just a few of the many
reasons “Why Good Employees Quit”1
○ Managers do not often reward (with or without pay) their employees, nor
do they acknowledge them for their work. It is hard as an employee to do
everyday work without any feedback
○ According to the article, “when you disregard your commitment, you come
across as slimy, uncaring, and disrespectful”. 1
1.http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/249903

15. Failure to Honor Commitments (Cont.)
● “Most of the vexing challenges leaders face—improperly executed strategy, lack
of organizational agility, disengaged employees, and so on—stem from broken or
poorly crafted commitments.” -Harvard Business Review
● Promise-Based Management is one of the best forms of incentives for employees
to honor their commitments.
● Continuance commitment (Chapter 2) is based off of a system of rewards. This
rewards based system is precisely why Promise-Based Management is proven to
increase employee commitment.

16. Sources
Belsky, Gary. "Cheating: Why (Almost) All of Us Cheat and Steal." Time. 18 June 2012. Web. 1 Feb. 2016.
Bradberry, Travis. "9 Things Managers Do That Make Good Employees Quit." Entrepreneur. N.p., 09 Sept.
2015. Web. 26 Jan. 2016.
Brooks, Chad. "Understanding Why Employees Steal ... and How to Stop It." N.p., 4 Mar. 2014. Web. 26 Jan.
2016.
Colquitt, Jason, Jeffery A. LePine, and Michael J. Wesson. Organizational Behavior: Essentials for Improving
Performance and Commitment. Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2010. Print.
Conner, Cheryl. "Employees Really Do Waste Time at Work."Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 17 July 2012. Web. 01
Feb. 2016.
Fisher, Anne. "U.S. Retail Workers Are No. 1...in Employee Theft." Fortune US Retail Workers Are No 1in
Employee Theft Comments. N.p., 26 Jan. 2015. Web. 26 Jan. 2016.
Shulman, Terrence. "The Shulman Center for Compulsive Theft, Spending & Hoarding." The Shulman Center for
Compulsive Theft, Spending & Hoarding. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2016.

17. Sources
"Statistic Brain." Statistic Brain. Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, Easy Small Business HR, Institute
for Corporate Productivity, Jack L. Hayes International, Inc., n.d. Web. 26 Jan. 2016.
Sull, D., & Spinosa, C. (2007, April 1). Promise-Based Management: The Essence of Execution. Harvard Business
Review. Retrieved February 1, 2016, from https://hbr.org/2007/04/promise-based-management-the-
essence-of-execution