Antecedent Factors of Whistleblowing in Organizations

Abstract

Despite a significant increase in the awareness on the importance of whistleblowing practices in work place, many remain silent and choose not to report the wrongdoings of their employers. Whistleblowing is one of the internal control mechanisms to deter organizational wrongdoings and it is therefore important to encourage those with broad knowledge to come forward to disclose this information. This conceptual article reviews prior literature that examined antecedent factors of whistleblowing intentions which revealed inconsistent results. Building from the theory and following the prior literature, the article proposes the antecedent factors of whistleblowing intentions namely organizational ethical culture and two moral philosophies namely deontological and teleological evaluations. Hence, it is expected that the proposed factors would create new possible avenues for future research.