Ethical Climates and Contextual Predictors of Whistle-Blowing

Abstract

This article presents the results of a study that investigates ethical climate theory and eight contextual predictors of willingness to blow the whistle and frequency of whistle-blowing on seven forms of misconduct. Although three of the ethical climates investigated demonstrate relationships with whistle-blowing intentions and actions, the ethical climates generally fail to predict whistle-blowing consistently. Instead, supervisory status emerges as the most consistent predictor of intentions and behaviors. Contrary to popular belief, civilian status also demonstrates significant negative relationships with whistle-blowing. Police are less inclined than civilian employees to maintain a code of silence.

Whistleblowing Behaviour: The Influence of Ethical Climates Theory

“…Furthermore, the fact that their samples were drawn from employees in public organisations might have made the ethical climate theory less generalisable to such an organisation. In general, Rothwell and Baldwin (2006) claimed that ethical climates are not able to predict individuals' whistleblowing intentions. Despite the results, Rothwell and Baldwin (2006) had suggested that future studies need to be conducted in private organisations.…”

“…Peterson (2002) states that it is uncertain how many ethical climate dimensions exist in a particular organisation as well as items of ECQ that are representative of each dimension. With regards to whistleblowing, organisational ethical climate theory can be used to show how reporting intentions are influenced by the organisations' climate (Rothwell & Baldwin, 2006). Rothwell and Baldwin (2006) study was the first and only study that investigated the relationships between ethical climate and whistleblowing behaviour.…”

“…With regards to whistleblowing, organisational ethical climate theory can be used to show how reporting intentions are influenced by the organisations' climate (Rothwell & Baldwin, 2006). Rothwell and Baldwin (2006) study was the first and only study that investigated the relationships between ethical climate and whistleblowing behaviour. They concluded that ethical climates may have limited capacity to affect whistleblowing act due to the complexities and sensitivities associated with such act.…”

“…The quests for answers are not limited to the whistleblowers' individual factors alone. Organisational factor such as organisation's ethical climate may also explain why employees resort to such behaviour (Barnett & Vaicys, 2000;Rothwell & Baldwin, 2006). Cullen et al, (1993, p. 103) define ethical climates as ''the ethical dimensions of organization culture'' that captures the ethical identity of a particular organisation.…”

Connecting the Two Faces of CSR: Does Employee Volunteerism Improve Compliance?

“…Respondents may not be candid about their actual behaviors if they believe that their choices were questionable or that they would get into trouble, even retrospectively. Therefore, most researchers in this area have designed hypothetical vignettes to illustrate various compliance situations that employees might encounter (Barnett and Vaicys, 2000;Buchan, 2005;Rothwell and Baldwin, 2006). The theory of planned behavior supports such a design by demonstrating clearly that intentions are strong predictors of behavior and, therefore, intentions are a valid source of data for inquiry (Ajzen, 1991).…”