Blame Game Theory: Scapegoating, Whistleblowing and Discursive Struggles following Accusations of Organizational Misconduct

Roulet, Thomas J.; Pichler, Rasmus

doi:10.1177/2631787720975192

Cited by 45 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 118 publications

(245 reference statements)

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“…As a result, perceived seriousness of wrongdoing might vary based on the whistleblower's intentions and depending on the cultural setting. It is possible that seriousness does not have enough of an impact on a person's whistleblowing intentions because of the effect of factors such as group norms and organizational culture on the severity of wrongdoing [63,66]. A new study shows that perceived seriousness of wrongdoing is strongly associated with public accountants' desire to report wrongdoing in Barbados [40].…”

Section: Rationalization As a Moderator Between Psw And Whistleblowin...mentioning

confidence: 95%

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Examining Whistleblowing Intention: The Influence of Rationalization on Wrongdoing and Threat of Retaliation

Khan

Saeed

Zada

et al. 2022

IJERPH

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Whistleblowers who expose wrongdoing often face several concerns, pressures, and threats of retaliation before reaching a final decision. Specifically, this study examines the effects of perceived seriousness of wrongdoing (PSW) and perceived threat of retaliation (PTR), as well as the impact of rationalization (RNL), comparing perceived seriousness of wrongdoing, perceived threat of retaliation and whistleblowing intention. Furthermore, this study aims to determine the mediating effect of anticipated regret (AR) on the relationship between perceived seriousness of wrongdoing and whistleblowing intention. We validated our model by analyzing data gathered across three stages from employees in the telecom sector in Pakistan. The key findings of our research may be summarized as follows: (i) individuals’ willingness to ‘blow the whistle’ increases as a result of perceived seriousness of wrongdoing; (ii) whistleblowers are more likely to opt to remain silent if they anticipate a greater threat of retaliation, and (iii) our study establishes a positive connection between perceived seriousness of wrongdoing and whistleblowing intention, indicating that perceived seriousness of wrongdoing enhances people’s willingness to blow the whistle, and whistleblowers are more likely to choose to emerge if the behaviour is more serious in nature.; (iv) the data we have uncovered indicates a moderating role of rationalization in regulating the connections between perceived seriousness of wrongdoing, perceived threat of retaliation, and whistleblowing intention; and (v) the findings demonstrate that anticipated regret mediates the connection between perceived seriousness of wrongdoing and the intention to report wrongdoing. Additionally, the results are discussed in terms of their significance for corporate ethics researchers and managers, as well as for end-users who are interested in whistleblowing.

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Section: Rationalization As a Moderator Between Psw And Whistleblowin...mentioning

confidence: 95%

“…According to researchers, perceived seriousness of wrongdoing is a significant positive predictor of whistleblowing intention [28,[63][64][65]. It is difficult to pin down the perceived seriousness of wrongdoing approach.…”

Section: Rationalization As a Moderator Between Psw And Whistleblowin...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Examining Whistleblowing Intention: The Influence of Rationalization on Wrongdoing and Threat of Retaliation

Khan

Saeed

Zada

et al. 2022

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…While some scholars have described the impact of time on whistleblower struggles, they typically focus on the period spent disclosing internally through an organization's prescribed channels (e.g. Vandekerckhove & Phillips, 2019), or on descriptive accounts of the activities involved (Roulet, 2020).…”

Section: Time Costs Of Speaking Outmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Costs and Labour of Whistleblowing: Bodily Vulnerability and Post-disclosure Survival

Kenny

Fotaki

2021

J Bus Ethics

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Whistleblowers are a vital means of protecting society because they provide information about serious wrongdoing. And yet, people who speak up can suffer. Even so, debates on whistleblowing focus on compelling employees to come forward, often overlooking the risk involved. Theoretical understanding of whistleblowers’ post-disclosure experience is weak because tangible and material impacts are poorly understood due partly to a lack of empirical detail on the financial costs of speaking out. To address this, we present findings from a novel empirical study surveying whistleblowers. We demonstrate how whistleblowers who leave their role as a result of speaking out can lose both the financial and temporal resources necessary to redevelop their livelihoods post-disclosure. We also show how associated costs involving significant legal and health expenditure can rise. Based on these insights, our first contribution is to present a new conceptual framing of post-disclosure experiences, drawing on feminist theory, that emphasizes the bodily vulnerability of whistleblowers and their families. Our second contribution repositions whistleblowing as a form of labour defending against precarity, which involves new expenses, takes significant time, and often must be carried out with depleted income. Bringing forth the intersubjective aspect of the whistleblowing experience, our study shows how both the post-disclosure survival of whistleblowers, and their capacity to speak, depend on institutional supports or, in their absence, on personal networks. By reconceptualizing post-disclosure experiences in this way—as material, embodied and intersubjective—practical implications for whistleblower advocacy and policy emerge, alongside contributions to theoretical debates. Reversing typical formulations in business ethics, we turn extant debates on the ethical duty of employees to speak up against wrongdoing on their heads. We argue instead for a responsibility to protect whistleblowers exposed to vulnerability, a duty owed by those upon whose behalf they speak.

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“…stylized theoretical presuppositions), in the field of organization studies the idiom involves instead a form of deliberate reasoning that explains a topic by parsing it into a set of specific contingent statements ('if, then' arguments, or general statements of a logical association between certain constructs) that, as mentioned, are derived from a particular conceptualization and then elaborate and qualify why and how something generally happens. An example of this style in Organization Theory is the paper by Roulet and Pichler (2020), in which they develop a set of theoretically driven propositions to explain when and how through the discursive strategies that an organization employs following a misconduct accusation it can strategically shift the blame to others or even deny that any form of misconduct has taken place.…”

Section: Explanatory Forms Of Theorizingmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Theory Is and Can Be: Forms of Theorizing in Organizational Scholarship

Cornelissen

Höllerer

Seidl

2021

Organization Theory

121

102

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Theory is at the very heart of organizational scholarship and a key criterion for evaluating the quality and contribution of our research. Focusing on conceptual rather than empirical work, this editorial essay highlights the wide range of forms that theorizing might take – and how it, in consequence, materializes in different types of theory papers. Next to the propositional form of theory building, which has so far dominated reflections in the literature, we discuss the particularities of process, configurational, perspectival, and meta-theorizing, as well as various forms of critique. We demonstrate how these forms of theorizing differ in terms of their aims, style of reasoning, their contributions, and the way in which they are written up as papers. In view of the rather different roles that each of these forms of theorizing serve, we propagate, in line with the ethos of Organization Theory, a pluralistic stance when it comes to advancing theory in organization studies.

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Blame Game Theory: Scapegoating, Whistleblowing and Discursive Struggles following Accusations of Organizational Misconduct

Cited by 45 publications

References 118 publications

Examining Whistleblowing Intention: The Influence of Rationalization on Wrongdoing and Threat of Retaliation

Examining Whistleblowing Intention: The Influence of Rationalization on Wrongdoing and Threat of Retaliation

The Costs and Labour of Whistleblowing: Bodily Vulnerability and Post-disclosure Survival

What Theory Is and Can Be: Forms of Theorizing in Organizational Scholarship

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