Preventing Employee Theft in Retail - Research Proposal Example

RESEARCH PROPOSAL: TO WHAT EXTENT IS EMPLOYEE THEFT EFFECTING BUSINESS By School Research Proposal: To What Extent Is Employee Theft Effecting Business Background Information For quite a long time, the prospect of employee theft has revolved around public domains, with its impacts on business entities and economic advances being of great interest. By definition, employee theft involves any act of unauthorized stealing or improper usage of company assets or information. Thus far, the act occurs in a wide array of forms including, but not limited to, financial theft, time theft and supplies theft. Indeed, it is apparent that senior employees of a firm, who have access to various logistical and technical secrets of a firm have on various occasions promoted a new variant of employee theft; theft of information. This new aspect has threatened to derail business progress of many companies, with competitor firms easily finding ways to fix the subject firms using such secrets. Based on various statistics, as brought out by Walsh (2000), approximately 75% of employees have at one time or another been involved in employee theft, with a vast majority of the group having perpetrated the act multiple times. This, he notes, stems from mistreatment of an employee by the firm, a prospect that creates an urge of retaliation among the employees. In addition, the problem of employee theft has been proposed to result from underpayment of the workers. In some cases though, the employees are encouraged into adopting the vice due to lack of stringent regulatory and punitive measures. Indeed, the theft cases may hold long-standing effects on the economy and to the employees at personal levels. As such, it is often instrumental for appropriate response procedures to be adopted to withstand such cases. For instance, many firms have often been encouraged into adopting stringent regulations which, nevertheless, impact negatively on business performance. Therefore, it is notable that the measures adopted so far have been less effective considering the increase in incidences of theft and consequent collapses and insolvencies among many traditional firms. Aims This work aims at ascertaining the impact of employee theft on businesses and the economy of the United Kingdom. Objectives This study is based on various objectives around which the aspect of employee theft revolves. Firstly, the study seeks to determine the internal and external business factors that precipitate employee theft. The study also seeks to determine the probable impacts of the theft cases to social and economic setups within and without the firm, and the implications of such business factors to the economy of the UK. In addition, the study seeks to ascertain what globalization and technological advancement in business administration means to employee theft. Further, the study is focused on unearthing the roles played by cases of employee theft in the recovery of the UK from the 2009 global economic crisis. Finally, this study is founded with the objective of ascertaining the reasons for failures of many strategies that have often been put in place to combat the vice, and to further device integrated mechanisms for managing the situation. Importance of the Research This research is important to the economy of the UK, and management of businesses in a variety of ways. Notably, technological advancements have led to increased adoption of computerized networks and online business transactions among many business entities. While such technological revolutions have played a great role in easing business operations, they have equally been blamed for creating many loopholes through which employee theft is facilitated. For instance, the increased cases of cyber-attacks and data theft are evidentiary to this course. Through the understanding that will be created by this research, it will be easier to combat the developments, and to consequently promote business success and prosperity of the UK economy. Further, this study which is founded on the principle of fair-mindedness will propose ideal ways of dealing with employee issues, an angular observation that has been lacking in current administrative setups leading to employee unrests. Literature Review Based on various studies, it is undoubtable that employee theft is becoming a prominent issue that needs urgent intervention. According to Reed (2000), dishonest activities from the employees is a factor that has long been assumed by many organizations, and has consequently turned out to be very costly to businesses. He notes that the changing landscape in the fidelity bonds provides an ideal avenue to study the developments in the dishonesty by the employees. Further, Reed’s work cites the need for proper analyses of profit and loses to identify trends caused by employee dishonesty, and swift response. He, however, explores the major reasons for such developments, and notes that many employees resorted to theft due to their exclusion from vital proceedings in the firm; such as decision making and insurance policies. These observations are concurrent with the assertion and propositions of Walsh (2000). On the other hand, Chen and Sindiano (2012) explore the relativity of wages and honesty. Unsurprisingly, their study is able to establish a correlation between the two variables, with higher paid workers less likely to be involved in theft. Such lower incidences of theft result from minimal involvement in gossips and non-constructive groupings (Gabor, 2001). However, in other instances, the complexity of the employee theft is brought out when it is determined that the top-paid employees, who happen to have high influence on decision making within the firm, may promulgate fraudulent and corrupt activities in bids to harness more income. Chen and Sindiano, nevertheless, cite that inventory shrinkage and cash shortage go hand-in-hand. In a newer perspective, the Jones et al. (2001) stress that the rates of employee turn-over may impact on their immediate behaviors. According to this article, employees who are willing to quit a given position are more likely to be involved in theft as opposed to workers looking forward to stay within the firm for a longer period. This is furthered by observations in the Get Connected Magazine (2014), which notes that more fraudulent activities are facilitated during festive seasons such as Christmas, a period during which most firms employ short-term employees to help in running of business activities. During such periods, the magazine insinuates that the UK economy is robbed off in excess of £ 300 million. Also, the technological perspective has not been left behind in promotion of dishonesty among employees. Indeed, the Jelf Group (2014) notes that cyber crimes have been on the rise. Sadly, the Group, in concurrence with McAfee’s (2013) observations, observes that employees have been instrumental in leaking company information, which is consequently used to facilitate cyber crimes. Nevertheless, McAfee devices a wide array of strategies that can be used to combat the concerning developments. Oxford Economics (2009), however, notes that despite the presence of the problem, there are ideal ways of solving them. Such solutions, the journal notes, can effectively facilitate job creation within UK. For instance, audio-visual and copyright thefts, which have often been facilitated by employees, have been observed to cost thousands of jobs. According to Brand and Price (2000), it is instrumental for firms to incorporate costs of employee theft in their decision-making processes to prevent insolvency. Design and Method In this research, secondary data sources will be heavily relied upon. Firstly, such data is more economical thus cutting the cost of the research. The data from such sources is also consistent, hence making it easier to analyze and obtain. Further, secondary data provides an ideal platform for covering wider areas. However, the secondary data sources have an equally wider range of challenges. For instance, their analyses are marred with assumptions with the researcher being forced into trying to figure out the objectives and mentality of the author. In some cases, secondary analyses can be marred with instances of error propagation, especially if the primary researcher modified their data to suit a given objective. To alleviate the problems associated with the secondary data, critical analysis of the data and collection of sample primary data will be carried out. As such, the research will be semi-secondary. Notably, verifiability and reproducibility of data becomes a great impediment to successful research. In this respect, the research will follow the basic principles of ‘locate, evaluate and analyze’. This way, only credible secondary data will be used to facilitate the research. It is also evident that various secondary data sources have differing levels of confidence. To ensure the data used is credible, peer-reviewed journals will be used as chief data sources. This is due to their current nature, which ensures the changing trends in business setups are effectively captured. Also usable for the research are national statistics, books and comparative international trends. However, these sources are not to be older than from the year 2000, since most economic realignments have occurred since the turn of the century; such trends may not be fully captured in older sources. To validate the authenticity of such data, correlation studies; both historical, discourse, content and contextual analyses will be conducted. In cases of journals, the authority of the publisher will act as a great determinant of their usage. Conclusion In summary, it is worth stressing that employee theft is slowly, but surely becoming a global problem that has orchestrated the downfall of many global business giants. It is equally notable that the vice has been undergoing revolutionary pathways leading to collapse of many global economies, and equally promoting offensive strategies among antagonistic firms. Indeed, several cases involving data theft have been seen to impact negatively on customer trust on the firms as was seen with the HomeDepo Security breach. Equally, it is sad to note that the many strategies that have often been instituted to combat further spread have hardly been successful in meeting their objectives. As a result, unfavorable social environments, marred with suspicions, have been prominent in many institutions thus affecting the output by employees. For instance, measures such as careful choice of employee and tight supervision have often been given out as probable ideal response measures. However, the measures have never been able to conclusively combat the problems since the purported supervisors find it even easier to facilitate the vice. Equally, trusted employees have in many instances turned out to be traitors, revealing vital and confidential information to competitors. Upon firing, some of the employees even end up in rival firms thus subjecting the security of the former employer firm in greater risk. These, therefore, create the need for further research and strategic realignments, an objective which this research targets to achieve. Bibliography Berger, J., 2014. Who took that? Preventing employee theft in retail. Pinkerton Consulting and Investigation, Inc. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 14 January 2015]. Brand, S. and Price, R., The economic and social cost of crime [PDF]. Home Office Research Study. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 14 January 2015]. Chen, C. and Sandino, T., 2012. Can wages buy honesty? Relationship between relative wages and employee theft. Journal of Accounting Research. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 14 January 2015]. Gabor, T., 2001. Everybody does it: crime by the public. University of Toronto Press. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 14 January 2015]. Get Connected Magazine, 2014. Retail theft poses £1 billion cost to UK economy. Mud Hut Publishing. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 14 January 2015]. Jelf Group, 2014. Cyber crime costs UK economy £6.8 billion. Jelf Group. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 14 January 2015]. McAfee, 2013. The economic impact of cyber crime and cyber espionage [PDF]. Center for Strategic and International Studies. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 14 January 2015]. Oxford Economics, 2009. Economic impact of legislative reform to reduce audio-visual piracy [PDF]. Oxford Economics. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 14 January 2015]. Reed, S., 2000. Employee theft versus manifest intent: the changing landscape of commercial crime coverage. Tort & Insurance Law Journal. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 14 January 2015]. Thoms, P., Wolper, P., Scott, K. and Jones, D., 2001. The relationship between immediate turnover and employee theft in the restaurant industry . Journal of Business and Psychology. [Online] Available at: [Accessed 14 January 2015]. Walsh, J., 2000. Employee theft. International Foundation for Protection Officers. 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