Abstract:

Employee time theft, where employees receive payment for unworked hours or exaggerate their working hours, is predominantly viewed as a negative workplace deviant behavior that can be costly to organizations. Given its prevalence and high cost, it has become an important topic in the field of organizational behavior in recent years. Despite its importance, scholars have not yet systematically explored the reasons why employees engage in time theft, and research on its impact is even scarcer. As such, scholars lack the ability to speak directly to managers about this crucial phenomenon.

In this context, the first goal of this study is to examine time theft from employees’ perspectives, develop a theoretical model for time theft motives, explore specific motives using qualitative methods, and develop an instrument to measure them. This study suggests that employees may engage in time theft for not only self-oriented motives (e.g., money-making, pleasure-seeking) but also other-oriented (responding to others’ requests) and work-oriented reasons (efficiency promotion). The study collects employee time theft motives through open-ended questions and analyzes the motives based on grounded theory. Subsequently, it develops scales to assess each motive and examines their validity.

Building upon the specific time theft motives, this study then aims to examine the impact of employee time theft from both the actor’s and the observer’s perspectives. From the actor’s perspective, drawing from self-perception theory (Bem, 1972), the effort-recovery model (Meijman & Mulder, 1998), and the social cognitive theory of morality (Bandura, 1991), this study examines whether employee time theft guided by different motives will differentially affect the actor’s felt obligation, emotional exhaustion, and guilt, leading to a differential impact on the actor’s task performance, organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and creativity. From the observer’s perspective, drawing from affective event theory (Weiss & Cropanzano, 1996) and attribution theory (Heider, 1958), this study explores how time theft affects the observer’s emotions (i.e., anger, compassion) and work behaviors (i.e., task performance, OCB, creativity, and counterproductive work behavior), depending on the observer’s attribution of the actor’s motives of time theft.

Lastly, this study investigates how to decrease destructive time theft motives and its associated negative outcomes. Specifically, this study proposes that through the interventions of work meaningfulness and state mindfulness, employee time theft driven by self-oriented motives can be decreased, leading to higher levels of felt obligation and ultimately higher levels of task performance, OCB, and creativity.

In sum, the goals of this study are to understand the phenomenon of time theft from employee perspectives, promote in-depth future research on time theft and workplace deviance, and inspire practitioners with respect to how to effectively manage employee time theft. This study provides several implications for theory and practice. At the theoretical level, this study constructs a theoretical model for time theft motives and establishes a framework for the impact of these motives. It tackles the gap in systematic investigation of the mechanisms underlying time theft and the scarcity of research examining its impact. By analyzing time theft motives, the study introduces a two-dimensional motive classification framework, providing a nuanced understanding of how different motives influence time theft behavior and broadening the understanding of work motivation and negative workplace behaviors. On the practical level, the study offers theoretical guidance for managers to address time theft issues more humanely and effectively. By delving into the impact of time theft driven by different motives on both actors and observers, the research becomes a valuable reference for enhancing employee motivation and performance. Additionally, the study conducts field experiments to explore effective interventions for time theft driven by negative motives. This practical aspect helps bridge the gap between academic research and managerial practices, offering actionable insights for organizations to handle time theft issues. Overall, the study contributes significantly to both theoretical and practical realms, facilitating a better understanding of complicated time theft dynamics.

Key words: time theft, workplace deviance, motives, observers