The moderating role of work experience in the effect of ethical culture on whistleblowing in healthcare professionals and the effect of organizational trust on whistleblowing

Objective

This study aims to determine the moderator role of work experience in the impact of ethical culture perceptions of healthcare professionals on their whistleblowing tendencies. It is also to reveal the effect of organizational trust on whistleblowing.

Methods

The population of the study consists of health personnel working in the public or private sector in Turkey. The sample of the study consists of 481 health workers who voluntarily participated in the survey. Data were collected using the convenience sampling technique. In collecting data, whistleblowing, organizational trust, and ethical culture scales were used. In the analysis of the data, descriptive statistics, factor analysis, correlation analysis, and path analysis in the structural equation model were performed.

Results

The findings reveal that organizational trust has an impact on ethical culture and that some sub-components of organizational trust and ethical culture have an impact on whistleblowing. In addition, it has been determined that the group of health professionals with low work experience has a moderating role in the effect of applicability on internal whistleblowing.

Conclusion

To handle the whistleblowing mechanism internally in health institutions, it is important to clearly show the ethical rules to the employees. On the other hand, it has been seen that the professional experiences of the employees can be used as a tool for whistleblowing to work.