Academic dishonesty and whistleblowing in a higher education institution: A sociological analysis

Abstract

High rates of academic dishonesty are a concern in South Africa and worldwide, and whistle-blowing is a mechanism that can be employed to curb its incidence. This study tested the relationship between factors that influence the willingness of students at a South African higher education institution to blow the whistle on perceived academic dishonesty. A sample of 405 undergraduate sociology students at a South African university completed the self-administered structured questionnaires. The study found that students who feared retaliation from wrongdoers were less likely to be willing to report severe academic dishonesty. Students who were more likely to report on both severe and less severe forms of wrongdoing were those with higher levels of general honesty, those with higher levels of academic honesty, and those who were highly influenced by adherence to principles when deciding whether to report.

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

“…These included honesty, risk aversion, locus-ofcontrol, traits, personal disposition, and individual propensity. Honesty was positively associated with whistleblowing intentions within two studies (Keil et al, 2007;Radulovic and Uys, 2019), whereas risk aversion was negatively associated with whistleblowing intentions across three studies (e.g., Pillay et al, 2012Pillay et al, , 2017Zhou et al, 2018). Three studies (Chiu, 2002(Chiu, , 2003Chiu and Erdener, 2003) found that locus-of-control was negatively associated with intentions to blow the whistle.…”

“…Three studies found a positive relationship (King and Hermodson, 2000;Park et al, 2005;Zarefar and Zarefar, 2017), two studies found no relationship (Clements and Shawver, 2009;Gökçe, 2013d), and two studies found a negative relationship between personal ethics and whistleblowing intentions (Gökçe, 2013d;Pillay et al, 2018). Perceived legitimacy (Mbago et al, 2018) and adherence to one's principles (Radulovic and Uys, 2019) were both positively related to whistleblowing intentions. Ethics training was reported across three studies (Shawver, 2011a;McManus et al, 2012;Yu et al, 2019).…”

Personality Traits and Levels of Self-Efficacy as Predictors of Academic Dishonesty among Higher Education Students in Ghana

“…Anecdotal records show that academic dishonesty is present among students in higher educational institutions in Ghana but less to none empirical data are available to support them. Again, extant literature reporting academic dishonesty among higher education students provide skewed focus in terms of perceptions and involvement of students in the act (Anditya, Panggabean, & Hidayat, 2018;Arhin & Jones, 2009;Boateng et al, 2022;Radulovic, 2017;Saana et al, 2016) at the expense of psychological precursors such as personality traits and self-efficacy. Therefore, this study aims to investigate personality traits and levels of self-efficacy as predictors of academically dishonest behaviours among higher education students in Ghana.…”

Heroes or traitors? Perception of whistleblowers depends on the self-relevance of the group being reported

“…A large body of literature has investigated academic cheating and dishonesty (Anderman & Murdock, 2007; Chudzicka-Czupała et al, 2016). Although the study of academic whistleblowing has received scant attention, existing insights suggest that possible retaliation associated to reporting wrongdoing in the academic context is similar to that observed in the workplace (Radulovic & Uys, 2019; but see Jones et al, 2014). The present study examined how university students perceived a whistleblower of academic misconduct, a context that is highly relevant to them.…”