Dishonesty at Work: Sound Policy better than CCTV

Michael Mosbacher Director Social Affairs Unit

Why the right recruitment - and exit – policies are far more effective than any CCTV camera in minimising dishonesty by staff, is the finding of a new study.

Dishonesty and deceit are increasing in the workplace. Employee theft, it is estimated, is responsible for 30% to 40% of all business failures. In the retail sector, theft by staff accounts for an estimated 50.8% of all "shrinkages".

Dishonesty at Work, (John Taylor & Adrian Furnham, 2005 ISBN 1 904863 03 5 £9.95) published today by the Social Affairs Unit, offers employers a practical guide to minimising employee dishonesty. John Taylor worked for many years in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office; Adrian Furnham is Professor of Psychology at University College, London and has been acknowledged as the world's most productive psychologist for the last twenty years.

See also RESEARCH REPORT 36
VIOLENCE, DISORDER AND INCIVILITY IN BRITISH HOSPITALS
THE CASE FOR ZERO TOLERANCE ISBN 0 907631 97 5

THEODORE DALRYMPLE MD

84,273 incidents of violence or abusive behaviour by patients within the NHS were reported during the year 2000/2001. The number of such incidents reported in 1998-9 was pproximately 65,000.

“It is scarcely surprising if a young man, who has never met his father, and whom his mother has kicked out of her home because her current boyfriend, only a few years older than he, does not want him around, concludes that the only thing that should govern behaviour is first what you want and second what you can get away with.”

“The disorder in hospitals, as elsewhere, is the natural consequence of this kind of 'family' life; and anything that promotes this life also promotes disorder.”

“Disorder in hospitals - still a relatively minor, if growing, problem - is nevertheless a microcosm of many of our social problems.”

BBC News Report - " Thousands of doctors and nurses have been attacked over the past few years. One study found that one in 10 NHS staff had been assaulted over the past 12 months; for the general public the figure was one in 310."