Reporting Misdeeds: An Evaluation on Intention to Blowing the Whistle

Abstract

Abstract-The aims of this study are two folds, to identify whether intention to whistle blow exists; and to ascertain the relationship between perceived organizational support, channel of communication, attitude and intention to blow the whistle. The study was conducted in seven public offices in West Malaysia, involving 511 employees. The findings indicate that all the predicted elements are moderately associated with the act of whistle blowing. On the other hand, channel of communication is proven to be the most dominant variable where the existence of facilities to complaint is seen as the driver for employees to move forward and tell the truth. Moreover internal programs held by the organizations also supported the findings, as a powerful tool to create awareness of the importance to blow the whistle within the organization setting; while fair and just treatments by the organization have generated trust and confidence amongst the employees where they feel empowered and belongingness. Whistle blowing is also perceived as a new commitment by the respondents as reflecting their loyalties to the organization.Index Terms-Whistle blowing, whistle blowing intention, perceived organizational support, channel of communication, Malaysia.

A study of whistle-blowing intentions of teachers working in higher education sector

“…This highlights the fact that organization which supports its employees’ wellbeing, promotes transparency in the organization and stands against the wrongdoings and wrongdoers, witness more whistleblowing intentions among its employees. The results are consistent with the findings of Kamarunzaman et al (2014) and Chang et al (2017). Availability of communication channel in the organization also affects the whistleblowing intentions of the teachers in HEIs to a great extent.…”

“…Compared with the individual characteristics of whistleblowers, organizational variables seem to explain more variance in an individual’s intention to blow the whistle (Miceli et al , 1991b; Miceli and Near, 1984; Near and Miceli, 1996). Such organizational variables may include organization’s ethical climate (Barnett and Vaicys, 2000; Rothwell and Baldwin, 2006; Ahmad et al , 2014), size of organization (Near and Miceli, 1996) and organizational support (Kamarunzaman et al , 2014). Ahmad et al (2014) have investigated the influence of three types of ethical climate dimensions i.e.…”

“…The intention to whistle blow also depends on the availability of channel of communication in the organization. Kamarunzaman et al (2014) suggest that communication channel is the most dominant variable that drives the employees to act morally in the organization. If there are deficiencies in the structure of organization with regard to proper communication channels, the management is likely to fail in dealing with the whistleblower’s complaints.…”

“…This failure will encourage the whistleblower to report the wrongdoing externally. On the contrary, if the organization provides an avenue for hearing and dealing ethical issues through proper communication system within the organization, the whistleblower may report the wrongdoing internally and his intentions to report externally might be retarded (Kamarunzaman et al , 2014).…”

Snitches Get Stitches and End Up in Ditches: A Systematic Review of the Factors Associated With Whistleblowing Intentions

“…The attitude higher-order theme was concerned with how attitudes toward whistleblowing, policy, wrongdoing, and money were linked to whistleblowing intentions. Twelve studies reported that favorable attitudes toward whistleblowing positively predicted whistleblowing intentions (e.g., Ellis and Arieli, 1999;Lim and See, 2001;Park and Blenkinsopp, 2009;Richardson et al, 2012;Trongmateerut and Sweeney, 2013;Kamarunzaman et al, 2014;Brown et al, 2016;Alleyne et al, 2018Alleyne et al, , 2019Latan et al, 2018;Nurhidayat and Kusumasari, 2019). Further, teachers' who had more favorable attitudes toward a school's policy on examinations were more likely to blow the whistle than teachers with less favorable attitudes (Richardson et al, 2008).…”