Should I Blow the Whistle on My Boss? An Investigation of the Effects of Emotional Intelligence and Consequence Framing on the Subordinates' Whistleblowing Intentions

Abstract

ABSTRACTGiven that whistleblowing is considered an effective measure to prevent and detect fraud, we experimentally examine select factors that may impede a subordinate tipster to act when the leader is involved. Specifically, we examine the effects of the subordinate's emotional intelligence, the leader's emotional intelligence, and the consequence framing of outcomes to the company and the leader on the intention of the subordinate to blow the whistle. We found that when a leader is involved in a fraud and has a high emotional intelligence, the subordinate is less likely to blow the whistle. Moreover, the subordinate is more likely to blow the whistle when the outcome consequence is framed as being positive to the organization relative to being negative to the leader when the leader has a high emotional intelligence. This study makes scholarly contributions to the whistleblowing literature and has important practical implications in the anti-fraud arena.Data Availability: Data are available from the authors upon request.