Virtue in small business in small places: Organisational factors associated with employee dishonest behaviour in the retail sector

Krista Jaakson, Maaja Vadi (), Ilona Baumane-Vitolina and Erika Sumilo

Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 2017, vol. 34, issue C, 168-176

Abstract: The organisational factors associated with employee dishonest behaviour are understudied because dishonesty is sensitive topic and organisations are not willing to reveal misbehaviour to the wider public. This paper addresses this research gap by providing an empirical study on reporting of dishonest behaviour of retail employees in Estonia and Latvia. The aim of the paper is to find out how organisational factors affect the reporting of dishonest behaviour in retail sector. Local vs international retailers and rural vs capital city stores characterise organisational factors and these are analysed in different hypothetical scenarios: low wage, perceived injustice and boredom. The sample consists of 781 retail employees from six retail organisations. The study employed a survey with manipulated questionnaires. Some of the main findings are the following: employees in international retail chains and in stores located in capital cities deem dishonesty more prevalent compared to domestically owned shops and stores situated outside metropoles. However, employees outside capital cities were more sensitive to the motives, especially perceived injustice. Implications for retailers are discussed at the end of the paper.

Keywords: Employee dishonesty; Estonia; Latvia; Retail; Workplace deviance; Location (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:joreco:v:34:y:2017:i:c:p:168-176

DOI: 10.1016/j.jretconser.2016.09.017

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