How Much You See Is How You Respond: The Curvilinear Relationship Between the Frequency of Observed Unethical Behavior a
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ORIGINAL PAPER
How Much You See Is How You Respond: The Curvilinear Relationship Between the Frequency of Observed Unethical Behavior and The Whistleblowing Intention Muel Kaptein1 Received: 12 November 2019 / Accepted: 29 October 2020 © The Author(s) 2020
Abstract This article uses a sample of 3076 employees working in the USA to examine the relationship between the frequency of unethical behavior that employees observe in their organization and their intention to whistleblow. The results confirm the expected curvilinear relationship based on the Focus Theory of Normative Conduct. This relationship is a combination of a diminishing negative relationship between the frequency of observed unethical behavior and the intention to whistleblow internally and a linear positive relationship between the frequency of observed unethical behavior and the intention to whistleblow externally. The beliefs of employees about how supportive their management is when handling whistleblowing reports moderates the relationship between the frequency of unethical behavior employees observe and their intention to whistleblow. Keywords Whistleblowing · Voice · Speak-up · Unethical behavior · Focus theory of normative conduct
Introduction There is a rich literature on whistleblowing in work settings. Because whistleblowing is an important phenomenon (Miceli et al. 1991, 2009) and a complex one (Culiberg and Mihelič 2017; Nayir and Herzig 2012), there have been many studies on the characteristics of whistleblowers, the process of whistleblowing, and the consequences of whistleblowing (Culiberg and Mihelič 2017; Near and Miceli 2016). An individual’s morality and commitment, the intensity and type of unethical behavior, and the organizational culture and reporting infrastructure (Dungan et al. 2019; Vadera et al. 2009) are some of the individual, situational, and organizational antecedents that explain who, when, how, and to whom employees report unethical behavior. This article focuses on the frequency of observed unethical behavior as an antecedent of whistleblowing. Although this situational antecedent has not been identified and studied in the literature, we predict that it influences whether and how employees will blow the whistle. More specifically, * Muel Kaptein [email protected] 1
RSM Erasmus University Rotterdam, Room T11‑53, P.O. BOX 1730, 3000 DR Rotterdam, The Netherlands
this article asserts that the more often employees observe unethical behavior in their organization, the weaker is their intention to whistleblow internally and the stronger their intention to whistleblow externally. The Focus Theory of Normative Conduct developed by Cialdini and colleagues (Cialdini et al. 1990, 1991) will be used to explain these relationships and the moderating effect of the employees’ beliefs about how supportive their management is in handling their whistleblowing reports. To test the above-mentioned relationships, we used a sample of 3076 employees working in the USA. Before presenting and discussing the results, we first define t
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