It is time employers paid more attention to the issue of employee theft at the workplace as it can have a damaging effect on the company's bottom line and lead to negative publicity. The article provides a background on the motives of employee theft and the nature of steps that organizations can take to prevent theft from occurring in the first place. Building an ethical work culture plays a crucial role in creating a climate of honesty and deterring employees from engaging in deviant workplace behavior.

Employee theft is no longer an issue that can be ignored by employers. Although petty theft is not considered as a serious offence by many employers, it can, nevertheless, snowball into a larger problem. It is difficult to understand why some employees steal and others do not. Moreover, even those employees who are considered honest and loyal may resort to stealing. At the same time, very few of those who do steal would consider the act as stealing. They may think that they are justified in helping themselves to self-proclaimed and well-deserved "perks" for all the hard work done—a rightful deed to compensate for the raise which did not materialize or the promotion which did not take place or all the "injustice" meted out to them. Such people feel that it is legitimate to steal. Yet in other cases, employees involve themselves in acts which amount to theft but do not realize that they are doing so, or rather they do not want to admit it to themselves.

"At some point in everyone's life, they are confronted with the eighth commandment: Thou shall not steal. Mine came during high school. I had several friends who worked for various businesses, one of them at a fast-food restaurant. Every Friday at midnight, my other friends and I would visit him with empty stomachs. We would pay for the cheapest item on the menu, a 49-cent cookie, and he would give us all the food we wanted. We never gave one second of consideration to the effect of our actions. My story is not uncommon, and it should create concern."

HRM Review Magazine, Theft by Employees, Ethical Work Culture, Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, ACFE, Nation on Occupational Fraud and Abuse, Insurance Companies, Accounting Frauds, Certified Public Accountant, CPA, Security Education Systems, criminologist Donald R Cressey, Human Resource Management, HRM Practices, Appraisal Systems, Employee Assistance Programs, EAPs, Monitoring Systems.