Cheating in the Workplace: An Experimental Study of the Impact of Bonuses and Productivity

Gill, David; Prowse, Victoria L.; Vlassopoulos, Michael

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2109698

Cited by 17 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 79 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Studies with similar results have been conducted around the world by authors such as McGee et al (2006), Lourenco (2010) and Pascual-Ezama, Prelec and Dunfield (2013). However, other studies such as those by Gill et al (2012), Samnani and Singh (2014) and Aguinis, Joo and Gottfredson (2013) indicated that rewarding employees based on performance leads to decreased motivation and increased fraud, employee bullying and other types of unsavoury behaviour in the workplace. Even though the economic theories of efficient compensation forecast a positive relationship between company performance and executive remuneration, the efforts of researchers to document this relationship have been mostly unsuccessful.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 53%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The relationship between remuneration and financial performance for companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange

Kirsten

Toit

2018

SAJEMS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: The executive directors of a company are the agents of the shareholders and should manage the company in the best interest of the shareholders, not only for personal gain. It is therefore important for companies to ensure that they implement remuneration policies which will result in motivated employees who will execute decisions and actions which are in the best interest of the shareholders. However, it is widely acknowledged that the relationship between company performance and executive remuneration is weak. This implies that executives are still rewarded excessive remuneration regardless of the performance of their companies. Aim: The purpose of this study was to determine whether a relationship exists between the performance-based remuneration of executive directors and the financial performance of South African companies. Setting: The study was conducted in South Africa, specifically on companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Methods: The study design was quantitative and made use of a Pearson correlation and generalised least squares regression with bootstrapping at a 95% confidence interval to analyse the relationship between executive director remuneration and the financial performance of 42 companies in the consumer goods and services industry of the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) from 2006 to 2015. Results: The study established that the remuneration policies in place for South African executive directors within the consumer goods and services industry seem to be affected by the share price of the company. Conclusion: In the South African environment, executive director remuneration is thus not directly related to profitability or company size, as was the case in some earlier studies. The link between executive director remuneration and share performance may be an indication that remuneration policies are based on the share price and are thus directly connected to the principle of shareholder wealth maximisation.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 53%

“…Reward systems should not only motivate employees, but also enhance the overall corporate values of the company (Kuo et al 2013). Gill et al (2012) and Shin (2013) suggest that companies with bonus-based pay structures should consider that worker dishonesty might be an unintended consequence.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relationship between remuneration and financial performance for companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange

Kirsten

Toit

2018

SAJEMS

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Most evidence comes from lab experiments as the identification of relative comparisons in the field is a daunting task. These laboratory studies document, for example, that subjects at the lower end of the income distribution take unwise risk (Kuziemko et al, 2014), that subjects cheat more when they are aware that others earn more (Gill, Prowse and Vlassopoulos, 2013;John, Loewenstein and Rick, 2014) and that subjects with higher earnings do not give more to a charitable cause than subjects with lower earnings (Tonin and Vlassopoulos, 2013). 6 In all these studies the distribution of income is randomly assigned and there is no variation in inequality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Is increasing inequality harmful? Experimental evidence

Fehr

2018

Games and Economic Behavior

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte.

show abstract

“…Retailers are also significantly affected by unethical behaviour in workplace. Previous studies have confirmed theft among the key losses for retail business (John et al, 2014;Moorthy et al, 2015) and low-level employees in low-wage sector being a higher risk group for unethical action (Detert et al, 2007;Whysall, 2008;Gill et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Managing workplace diversity: Ethical reasoning in a socio-cultural context

Apsalone

2017

PROSOC

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Workplaces are becoming increasingly diverse, and businesses constantly face the challenge of ensuring work ethics to strengthen competitiveness. Workplace ethics is affected not just by potential gains and losses of unethical action but also by employee morale, values and self-concept. The ethical reasoning process depends on both perception of what is ethical and the ability to justify unethical action in a given situation. In this study, we explore the role of individual, organisational and situational factors influencing the perceived degree of unethical behaviour at work. Individual socio-cultural factors include personal values, such as honesty, and socio-demographic factors, such as age, gender, education and tenure. Organisational factors are assessed through espoused values of honesty and responsibility. Finally, three situational factors are randomly introduced – low wage, boredom and perceived injustice. Two hundred and eight retail employees were surveyed to assess their personal values and the perceived degree of unethical behaviour at work. We found that honesty as a personal value changes ethical reasoning, especially when situational factors, such as low wage are introduced. Moreover, older employees tend to report more ethical behaviour in the workforce. We also concluded that declaring honesty and responsibility as organisational values could have a minor positive impact on ethical behaviour mitigating the impact of the introduced situational factors. Keywords: Socio-cultural factors, values, workplace diversity, business ethics, ethical reasoning

show abstract

Cheating in the Workplace: An Experimental Study of the Impact of Bonuses and Productivity

Cited by 17 publications

References 79 publications

The relationship between remuneration and financial performance for companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange

The relationship between remuneration and financial performance for companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange

Is increasing inequality harmful? Experimental evidence

Managing workplace diversity: Ethical reasoning in a socio-cultural context

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About