How Much to Trust?

Critical Moment Ethics (criticalmomentethics.com) exists to educate small business owners about employee theft. One point we make on the website is that no business can grow without delegating work to employees. Work can only be delegated if employees can be trusted- to some extent. The tough question is: how much to trust?
Say for example that you own a Tree Service company. A storm 20 miles away has created an business opportunity. Thousands of trees need to be cleared. How does the owner take advantage of the opportunity and not neglect business referrals in his “normal” area of operation? Does the owner manage the work himself, or does he trust his foreman to take crews to the storm area?
There are two facets to this issue. First, what is the owner’s opinion in the character of the foreman? Has he taken on more responsibility before? How did he handle it? Second, are procedures in place to prevent theft. If the foreman takes a crew out of town, are there procedures in place to allow the owner to control billing and payments? Can the owner track where the crew is and document each job? If procedures are in place, a dishonest employee is less likely to steal from the business.
The Lesson: The employee’s character and proper procedures can help the owner determine how much responsibility to delegate to workers.
Your Homework: Have you delegated work to an employee that ended badly? Did you judge the person’s character poorly? Were there procedures in place to prevent damage to your business?
(Source: “Inside Job: Small-business owners need to trust their employees. Up to a point”, Wall Street Journal, 4/30/07)