Reframing whistleblowing intention: an analysis of individual and situational factors

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to reframe the whistleblowing process by examining the individual and situational factors that have been overlooked by prior studies. Ethical climate, public service motivation (PSM), organisation identification and psychological safety are inquired. Design/methodology/approach The present study sample was drawn from a population of Indonesian local governments located in east Java, Indonesia. Particularly, self-administered questionnaires were hand-distributed to the employees in the four local governments. Of 2,169 questionnaires distributed to the employees, 1,687 questionnaires were returned to the researcher. However, the researcher removed 33 returned questionnaires because of poor data quality, such as incomplete answers. Thus, only 1,654 questionnaires were analysed in this study. Findings The findings support the idea of an ethical climate that can encourage the individual to blow the whistle. However, its effect is indirect. The predictive power of ethical climate on the individual’s whistleblowing intentions depends on the meditating roles of PSM, psychological safety and organisation identification. Interestingly, the mediating effects of PSM, psychological safety and organisation identification are extremely acknowledged when individuals have an opportunity to choose internal or external disclosures. Originality/value This study produces a different approach to understanding people’s intentions to report any wrongdoings. This study is dissimilar from prior studies in terms of the theoretical paradigm and research design. Previous studies mostly used students as their experiments. In contrast, the current study recruited employees who work in local governments. This situation fundamentally affects the understanding of the impact of an ethical climate on the individual intention to blow the whistle.

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

“…To begin with, when the notion of whistleblowing was initially introduced in the 1970s, it was widely recognised across a broad variety of disciplines, especially those in the humanities such as sociology and psychology. It has since gained widespread acceptance and has also achieved widespread acceptance among the manufacturing industries [11,12]. Several significant studies on whistleblowing were published in the 1980s, including one by [13] that is still in use today, which defined whistleblowing as "a process involving at least four elements: (i) the whistleblower: a former or current member of an organization who is aware of a wrongdoing, but generally lacks the authority or power to make the required changes; (ii) the whistleblowing act: the act of disclosing an illegal, immoral, illegitimate practice to persons or organizations that might be able to bring about change; (iii) the complaint receiver: a third party (external whistleblowing) or someone other than or in addition to the immediate supervisor (internal whistleblowing); and (iv) the organization: a public or private organization who is the target of the whistleblowing and who will be called upon to respond (or not) to the disclosure of wrongdoing."…”

Systematic Literature Review: Whistleblowing Intentions in Indonesian Public Sector Organizations

“…This shows that the majority of researchers are currently more interested in researching using the questionnaire method compared to other methods. When viewed from the research collected, the largest number of respondents was carried out by [25] namely as many as 1654 respondents. Based on the results of research in RQ6 regarding the results of research in research on whistleblowing intentions in Indonesian public sector organizations, researchers can conclude that authentic leadership or ethical leadership, psychological security, affective commitment and ethical climate affect whistleblowing intentions or intentions in Indonesian public sector organizations.…”

“…However, their relationship should not be direct, the rationale is that moral considerations are a factor in shaping a behavioral intention. Whistleblowing is about ethical and moral decision making and in this study [25] the predictive power of ethical climate on the intention to commit an individual's whistleblowing action depends on the role of meditation, oriented motivation, psychological security and organizational identification. Interestingly, the effects of meditation, oriented motivation, psychological security and organizational identification are highly recognized when one has the opportunity to choose to disclose fraud cases internally and externally.…”

“…The fourth factor that influences is the ethical climate. According to research [25] , the ethical climate is able to encourage individual decisions to take whistleblowing actions. However, their relationship should not be direct, the rationale is that moral considerations are a factor in shaping a behavioral intention.…”

Öğretmenlerin Bilgi Uçurma Nedenlerinin Örgütsel Sinizm ve Özdeşleşme ile Olan İlişkisi: Bir Yol Analizi Çalışması

“…Alanyazın incelendiğinde bilgi uçurma, sinizm ve özdeşleşme kavramlarını doğrudan birlikte ele alan çalışmalara rastlanılmasa da örgütsel bağlamda üç olgunun birbiriyle doğrudan ve dolaylı bir etkileşim içinde olabileceği öngörülmüştür. Nitekim örgütsel özdeşleşme ve sinizm arasında negatif yönlü anlamlı bir ilişkinin varlığı gözlemlenirken (Argon ve Ekinci, 2016) kişinin bilgi uçurma niyeti üzerinde örgütsel özdeşleşme algısının rol oynadığı ifade edilmiştir (Nuswantara, 2022). Benzer şekilde bilgi uçurma niyeti sinik tutumlar ile de açıklanabilir (Culiberg ve Mihelič, 2017).…”