The effect of organisational values on employee theft : a study of supermarkets in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

The primary purpose of this study is to explore empirically the relationship between staff perceptions about organisational values and employee theft, with the intention of showing that the perception of strong organisational values in the workplace by employees minimises the occurrence of employee theft. The study focuses on a chain of company supermarkets in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A total of 429 employees from the chosen supermarkets company have answered the questionnaire. Eight top executive staffs including the chairman of the targeted company and 15 store managers were interviewed. Among the findings are that organisational values have been classified into six dimensions as a result of factor analysis and, generally, there are statistically significant relationships between these dimensions and employee theft. The general findings support the main hypotheses of the thesis. The findings also support the hypothesis that employee theft is affected by the level of economic and community pressures as controlling variables for organisational values. The thesis has contributed to both the field of employee theft and the field of retail security theoretically and methodologically as one of the few studies which have been done in Saudi Arabia. Theoretically this study has investigated the relationships between organisational values and employee theft and methodologically by developing both organisational values and employee theft scales. These scales can be utilised for future research. More suggestions for future research and further studies in employee theft in Saudi Arabia are recommended..