Bridging the chasm between intentions and behaviors: Developing and testing a construal level theory of internalwhistle-blowing

• Main Authors: VADERA, Abhijeet K., TENBRUNSEL, Ann E., DIEKMANN, Kristina A.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2024
• Subjects: whistle-blowing intentions; whistle-blowing behaviors; ethical infrastructure; construal fit; construal level theory; Organizational Behavior and Theory; Organization Development
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/7501; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/8500/viewcontent/BridgingChasm_WhistleBlowing_av.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The recent wave of corporate scandals has necessitated a more systematic investigation of internal whistle-blowing as a potential way to prevent wrongdoing. Our understanding of whistle-blowing, however, has been hampered by a deep chasm that exists between employees’ intent to blow the whistle and their whistle-blowing behaviors. We argue that to fully bridge this gap, we need to consider employees’ cognitive states at the time of whistle-blowing intentions versus behaviors and to link these cognitive states to the ethical systems within the organization’s ethical infrastructure to understand which systems are more effective in cultivating whistle-blowing intentions and which systems help translate those intentions into behaviors. Across one multisource field study and one multiwave experiment, we found support for our arguments that top management valuesbased communication systems, which are more high construal (abstract), affect whistleblowing intentions whereas ethical accountability systems and ethical retaliatory systems, which are more low construal (concrete), moderate the relationship between whistleblowing intentions and behaviors. By linking ethical systems within the organization’s ethical infrastructure to the two stages (intentions and behaviors) of the whistle-blowing process and the accompanying cognitive states, we develop and empirically test a construal level theory of internal whistle-blowing.