Employees’ Theft Behaviour: a Study in Large Retail Organisations in Kuala Lumpur

Employee theft is one of the major factors of retail shrinkage despite many costly technological and widespread security measures. Employee theft cannot be ignored as it causes significant losses to employers. This study investigates the workplace factors that affect the employee retail theft behaviour. Although identifying theft is difficult, this study will help employers to further understand the retail employees’ theft behaviour. This study was conducted in several large retail organisations in Malaysia’s capital city, Kuala Lumpur. Data has been collected via questionnaire from 327 retail employees consisting managers, supervisors, retail employees and security personnel. The results showed that Compensation, Organisational Justice, Internal Control Systems and Punishment have a relationship with the Employees’ Theft Behaviour. However, the Organisational Ethics did not influence the Theft Behaviour.