| Time theft is the propensity of employees to engage in unsanctioned non-work related activities during work time. The problem addressed by this study was that time theft costs American companies hundreds of billions of dollars annually and is often systemic in organizations because managers who are entrusted to minimize time theft not only engage in such activity but often do so more frequently than junior employees. The purpose of this qualitative study, via a phenomenological approach, was to evaluate through interviews with business owners, the existence and extent of time theft and predict organization and external stakeholder impacts if increased managerial monitoring measures were imposed. Ten business owners were asked numerous open-ended questions to address three identified gaps in the existing scholarly literature. The gaps were (a) the absence of studies addressing actual business owner perceptions of the issue of organizational time theft, (b) further study needed to be performed on the issue of managerial oversight, and (c) the impacts to external stakeholders (such as customers) needed further investigation. The researcher identified businesses via the Internet, referral, site visits, or via pre-existing professional relationship. Business owners were contacted in person, via phone call, or professional email. Analysis of participant responses was categorized via open coding. The results of the analysis in relation to the four research questions concluded that although time theft existed within firms to varying degrees, created internal inefficiency, and delayed customer service response, 80 percent of business owners confirmed that they were against implementing increased monitoring measures over their organizational leaders. Implications of the results concluded that the majority of respondents did not perceive increased monitoring measures to benefit their firms or customers. Despite business owners' acknowledgement of the presence and inherent ramifications of employee time theft, the preponderance of interviewees professed increased managerial monitoring measures would adversely affect their organizations more than time theft itself, and resolved that they would not implement additional oversight. A majority of respondents believed that their external stakeholders would experience no impact due to increased supervisory monitoring. Recommended future research includes the need to explore perceptions of business owners who employ non-office-centric workers, governmental time theft, and the "cultures" of time theft internationally. |
