Abstract

In response to a call for understanding the role of fear of retaliation in the whistleblowing process (Alleyne, Charles-Soverall, Broome, & Pierce, 2017) and integrating emotional components in rational decision-making models (e.g., Luan, Reb, & Gigerenzer, 2019), this paper examines the role of fear of retaliation on an individual’s whistleblowing intention. Fear of retaliation is an anticipated negative reinforcement that is likely to weaken whistleblowing intention. Further, based on the context-driven nature of moral courage, we incorporate moral courage as a mediator between the fear of retaliation-whistleblowing intention relationship, where fear of retaliation is expected to erode moral courage which in turn is expected to reduce whistleblowing intention. At the same time, using the person-environment interaction framework, we examine the role of ethical leadership as a moderator, in reducing the negative impact of fear of retaliation on whistleblowing intention. Data gathered, on a structured questionnaire, from 202 employees of the IT sector was subjected to regression analysis for testing the proposed hypotheses. Results supported our hypotheses. Practical and theoretical implications alongwith limitations of the study and future directions of research are discussed.

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