Whistleblowing is a psychological process that involves the calculation of risks and benefits. While there exists a broad range of research on whistleblowing in the public sector, previous studies have not examined its entire process due to the limited focus on either whistleblowing intention or whistleblowing behavior. This study aims to fill this gap by applying the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to the whistleblowing context. Specifically, we examine how individual beliefs about the likely consequences of whistleblowing (attitude toward whistleblowing), others’ expectations about whistleblowing (subjective norm), and the capability of blowing the whistle (perceived behavioral control) influence public employees’ actual whistleblowing by way of their intention to report wrongdoings. A series of structural equation models are tested using data from the 2010 Merit Principles Survey. The findings show that the more the employees perceive that the consequences of whistleblowing are important, the more the key referents support whistleblowing, and the more the protections for whistleblowers are available, the more likely are their intentions to disclose wrongdoings and then actually engage in whistleblowing behavior. We conduct additional analyses for internal and external whistleblowers separately and find that there are both meaningful similarities and differences between the two groups. This study provides support for the validity of TPB as a theoretical framework for better understanding and explicating the psychological process of bureaucratic whistleblowing.

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Public administration scholars have provided a variety of theoretical insights to understand bureaucratic whistleblowing, and have emphasized its ethical, legal, and practical rationales in the context of democratic bureaucracy. To enhance our understanding of this principled dissent behavior in the public sector, this study systematically reviews 71 whistleblowing articles and dissertations that address three aspects in the literature: (1) definitions and theories; (2) methods and data, and (3) factors associated with whistleblowing intention and behavior. The findings show public administration whistleblowing research typically uses Near and Miceli’s definition, grounded on psychology, ethics, and human resource management (HRM) theories. Methodologically, there is a notable recent trend in the growth of empirical research using survey data, and equal attention has been paid to both whistleblowing intention and behavior variables. Based on the review findings, the study discusses two issues—definitional and theoretical—and presents four research agendas for future bureaucratic whistleblowing scholarship.