Workplace ethics at the time clock: fudging time with respect to Western and Eastern views

Abstract

A case study of employee timekeeping behavior was done at a retail business, revealing one way in which employees took advantage of the discrepancy between actual and recorded time to increase their wages. Employees' attitudes regarding this practice are discussed. Additionally, a survey regarding the ethical perspectives of this particular timekeeping behavior was administered to participants at colleges in the USA and South Korea. A cross-culture analysis of the findings revealed that American participants somewhat disapproved of employees committing this unethical timekeeping behavior to boost their own personal financial gain at the expense of their employers, whereas Koreans somewhat sympathized with this practice. Additional findings from participants from Saudi Arabia and China gave rise to future research in other cultures.

Keywords::

• case study
• cross culture
• employee behavior
• ethics
• survey
• timekeeping