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Employee dishonesty is problematic for businesses in general, particularly for retailers. The purpose of this paper is to empirically analyse selected factors associated with the perceived likelihood of dishonest behaviour among retail employees. Specifically, the role of three negative work outcomes – insufficient pay, boredom, and perceived injustice – is investigated, as well as the effect of individual values and espoused organisational values.

The sample consisted of 784 retail employees from six retail organisations located in Estonia and Latvia. A survey questionnaire that used manipulated scenarios of work outcomes and organisational values was administered.

The study concludes that perceived injustice produces more dishonesty than other negative work outcomes (insufficient pay and boredom), whereas boredom was a surprisingly strong trigger for the perceived likelihood of dishonest behaviour. Individual ethical values determined the perceived likelihood of dishonest behaviour as hypothesised while sensation-seeking values did not. Espoused organisational values had no significant effect on the perceived likelihood of dishonest behaviour.

The results imply that the breach of distributional and procedural justice simultaneously associates most with employee dishonesty, and retail employee selection is the key to curbing dishonest behaviour in the workplace.

The paper makes a contribution to behavioural ethics literature by studying dishonest employee behaviour in the post-communist context while addressing various forms of dishonest behaviour, in addition to stealing. Also, the effect of espoused organisational values has been scarcely studied before.

The economic life is often hindered by problems that can be successfully solved by tapping into concepts of social sciences. Herein, basic assumptions uniform people’s behavior but these may also create problems and thus, nowadays the economy meets the consequences of the so-called “soft issues” for various reasons. In this light, the aim of the volume is to show what kind of influences may turn out from honesty and dishonesty to management and the economy, in general. These effects generate an ensemble where factors could affect and be affected by each other in several ways.

Purpose — The aim of this chapter is to explore the relative bounds between the domains of dishonesty and honesty, focusing on the antecedences and consequences of these phenomena.Design/methodology/approach — This conceptual paper discusses the literature on the nature of (dis)honesty in management based on the chapters published in this book but also other management literature.Findings — (Dis)honesty is a complex concept, especially in international management. The chapter brings out two main features of dishonesty. First, dishonest behavior occurs always in result of moral path dependency, and second, both honest and dishonest behaviors seem to be contagious — belonging to our social surrounding, we inevitably mirror others.Originality/value — The complexity of (dis)honesty in management (encompassing its nature, impact factors and consequences) has received relatively little research attention.

Purpose — This chapter is aimed at testing the strength of three different drivers to engage in dishonest behavior at work — financial gain, response to injustice, and escape from boredom — and shedding light to the power of individual and organizational values to hold down the effect of these drivers.Design/methodology/approach — We analyze the data of 167 service employees from a large retail organization, who responded to questionnaires which manipulated drivers and organizational values.Findings — As a result we find that the financial and injustice drivers are effectively triggering several dishonest behaviors, whereas — contrary to the expectations — boredom at work does not threaten employers with employee engagement in dishonest behavior. We do find weak moderating effect of individual values in reacting to the drivers for some forms of dishonest behaviors, but the role of organizational values was marginal.Originality/value — In this chapter dishonest behavior is divided into nine specific dishonest acts involving management and customers as the stakeholders whose interests are at stake. We attempt to associate these behaviors with particular drivers. We also look at the moderators in this process: individual and organizational values. To date, espoused values of the organization is an underexplored organizational instrument compared to other situational variables, for instance, the existence of codes of ethics.

Purpose — The aim of this chapter is to explain the concepts of honesty and dishonesty in management and provide a general understanding why and how honesty and dishonesty may manifest in different ways.Design/methodology/approach — This conceptual chapter discusses what (dis)honesty is, which factors affect it and which consequences result from it. It is illustrated with several short examples.Findings — (Dis)honesty is a complex concept. It is not always possible to classify a certain act as honest or dishonest: sometimes, it is in the ‘grey area’. Moreover, the understanding what is honest and what is not depends on the cultural context. Thus, the term (dis)honesty may be sometimes more appropriate.Originality/value — The complexity of (dis)honesty in management (encompassing its nature, impact factors and consequences) has received relatively little research attention.

The aim of the study is to explore how organizational culture influences occurrences of workplace bullying in Estonia as a post‐transitional country. Another objective is to produce comprehensive empirical evidence of bullying in the specific cultural context.

The survey is based on the internationally well‐known research instrument, the Negative Acts Questionnaire Revised (NAQ‐R) (Mikkelsen and Einarsen) and the Questionnaire of Organizational Culture (QOC) (Vadi et al.).

Victims of bullying: 22 percent – at least one negative act per week; 9.3 percent – at least two negative acts per week; 0.6 percent – by definition (several times per week or daily); 8 percent – by definition (occasionally). The results reveal a clear negative relationship between bullying and task and relationship orientation of organizational culture.

The present study indicates clear factors at the organizational level where the preventive actions are needed to diminish the negative impact of bullying on employee's well‐being and encourages a discussion and further studies of workplace bullying in post‐transitional countries.

In Estonia and in other post‐transitional countries workplace bullying has not yet been studied closely. This study provides a comprehensive approach of workplace bullying related to organizational culture in a post‐transitional country.