Whistle While You Work? The Relational Determinants of Reporting Wrongdoing

Abstract

Although much of the misconduct that occurs within organizations is detected by other employees, many of those witnesses do not “blow the whistle” on their colleagues. Their reluctance may be due in part to the relationships in which employees are embedded within their organizations. In this paper, we theorize that social factors can interact to facilitate or inhibit whistleblowing within organizations. We contend that employees respond differently when the wrongdoing occurs either inside or outside of their workgroups, and that this distinction is moderated by the internal cohesion of those workgroups. When internal cohesion is high, individuals are less likely to report wrongdoing conducted by other members of the workgroup; however, high cohesion also promotes willingness to report wrongdoing observed outside the workgroup. Using unique data on observed and hypothetical whistleblowing by 33,755 US federal employees in 24 departments and agencies, we provide support for our arguments and show how competing explanations of whistleblowing can be integrated by situating them in particular social contexts. Together, these results reveal trade-offs in the detection of misconduct and help explain why wrongdoing in organizations may be so difficult to eradicate.