The Role of Self-Concept in the Observer's Perception of Theft

This research examined factors predicted to affect observers' perceptions and labeling of co-worker theft, observers' reporting of co-worker theft, and observers' own theft behavior in a laboratory and field context. Three factors were hypothesized to influence these variables. The first factor is whether the observer is schematic with respect to honesty. Honesty schematicity affected whether observers would report theft and engage in theft behavior themselves in the laboratory study and affected intentions to report theft in the field study. Observers who were honesty schematics were more likely to report theft and were less likely to engage in theft behavior themselves in the laboratory study. Observers who were honesty schematics were more likely to indicate that they would report theft in the field study. The second factor is similarity of observer-co-worker characteristics. Observer-co-worker similarity showed no effects in the laboratory study but affected labeling, reporting, and theft behavior in the field study. Observers were less likely to label and report behavior of targets who they perceived as similar and were more likely to engage in theft behavior when a similar co-worker engaged in that behavior. Additional analyses indicated that the relation between similarity and reporting was mediated by the labeling of theft. The final factor is the ambiguity of the observed theft. Event ambiguity affected labeling and reporting in the laboratory study and in the field study. In general, observers were more likely to label and report less ambiguous theft events. Additional analyses indicated that labeling of theft and perceptions of theft seriousness mediated the relation between event ambiguity and reporting. Implications for understanding theft behavior in organizations are discussed.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Business Administration

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2015

Author dc:creator

• Schmidtke, James M.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kulik, Carol T.

• Sociology, Criminology and Penology

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

(MiAaPQ)AAI9737244

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/84588