What Makes You a Whistleblower? A Multi-Country Field Study on the Determinants of the Intention to Report Wrongdoing

• Published in: Journal of business ethics Vol. 183; no. 3; pp. 885 - 905
• Main Authors: Latan, Hengky, Chiappetta Jabbour, Charbel Jose, Ali, Murad, Lopes de Sousa Jabbour, Ana Beatriz, Vo-Thanh, Tan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.03.2023; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Verlag
• Subjects: Business administration; Business and Management; Business Ethics; Corroboration; Education; Ethics; Government agencies; Humanities and Social Sciences; Management; Modern society; Original Paper; Philosophy; Polls & surveys; Quality of Life Research; Strength; Whistleblowing; United States > US; Indonesia; Public service motivation; Perceived organizational protection; Perceived seriousness of wrongdoing; Whistleblowing; Education of whistleblowing; Education of whistleblowing, Perceived organizational protection, Perceived seriousness of wrongdoing, Public service motivation, Whistleblowing
• ISSN: 0167-4544; 1573-0697
• DOI: 10.1007/s10551-022-05089-y

Whistleblowers have significantly shaped the state of contemporary society; in this context, this research sheds light on a persistently neglected research area: what are the key determinants of whistleblowing within government agencies? Taking a unique methodological approach, we combine evidence from two pieces of fieldwork, conducted using both primary and secondary data from the US and Indonesia. In Study 1, we use a large-scale survey conducted by the US Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). Additional tests are conducted in Study 1, making comparisons between those who have and those who do not have whistleblowing experience. In Study 2, we replicate the survey conducted by the MSPB, using empirical data collected in Indonesia. We find a mixture of corroboration of previous results and unexpected findings between the two samples (US and Indonesia). The most relevant result is that perceived organizational protection has a significant positive effect on whistleblowing intention in the US sample, but a similar result was not found in the Indonesian sample. We argue that this difference is potentially due to the weakness of whistleblowing protection in Indonesia, which opens avenues for further understanding the role of societal cultures in protecting whistleblowers around the globe.