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Whistle‐blowing can play an important role in the internal control environment of an organization, and internal auditors are its natural outlets. This study examines whistle‐blowing complaints received by internal auditors based on survey responses from 129 chief internal auditors of US manufacturing companies. Within the past two years, 71 percent of chief internal auditors received whistle‐blowing complaints, 65 percent of which were found to be true upon investigation. The receipt of whistle‐blowing complaints was positively associated with involvement of internal auditing in monitoring compliance with the corporate code of conduct, and with audit committee support of internal auditing (as evidenced by audit committee involvement in decisions to dismiss the chief internal auditor). These results are consistent with recent calls by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations and others for public companies to maintain and enforce a code of conduct, and by the Blue Ribbon Committee and others about the need for audit committees to deal proactively with internal and external auditors.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of organisational commitment (OC) and corporate ethical values (CEV) on the whistle-blowing intentions of non-public accountants in Barbados.

The study uses a sample of 236 self-administered questionnaires from non-public accountants working in corporate organisations.

OC and CEV significantly influence internal and external whistle-blowing intentions. Non-public accountants with high OC, who also operate in organisations with strong perceived CEV, are more likely to exhibit high internal whistle-blowing intentions and low external whistle-blowing intentions. Non-public accountants with high perceived personal costs, low OC and a low degree of trust and confidence in the reporting systems, cite a general reluctance to whistle-blow internally and externally.

The findings may not be generalisable to other professions. In addition, it utilises a quantitative survey method, which does not allow for further investigation of non-public accountants’ perceptions and feelings.

The study can assist firms in developing effective whistle-blowing mechanisms. The findings show the importance of high OC, strong CEV and reduced personal costs in a whistle-blowing framework.

This study provides evidence of the influence of OC and CEV on whistle-blowing among members of the accounting profession in an emerging economy. The study also provides a whistle-blowing matrix and discusses the unique social and cultural factors influencing the whistle-blowing process in Barbados.

Whistleblowers have been credited for uncovering financial scandals in companies globally, including Enron, Olympus Corporation, and WorldCom. Despite increasing support and incentives for whistleblowing, there generally remains reluctance to blow the whistle. Thus, the purpose of this study is to review: (1) the determinants of internal and external whistleblowing on accounting-related misconduct, (2) U.S. whistleblowing legislation on accounting-related misconduct and related research, and (3) the effects of whistleblowing on firms and whistleblowers. Within each area, suggestions for future research are offered.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how a perceived ethical climate influences employees’ intention to whistle-blow through internal organizational channels and incorporates the mediating role of organizational identification and moral identity as well as the moderating role of individual risk aversion.

The five proposed hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression analysis with two waves of data collected in 2016 from 667 employees in Chinese organizations.

The findings indicate that perceived ethical climate had a positive effect on employees’ internal whistle-blowing intention, which was mediated by organizational identification and moral identity. Furthermore, employees’ risk aversion weakened the effect of organizational identification, while the moderating role by moral identity on internal whistle-blowing intention was not validated.

This study explains the psychological mechanism of whistle-blowing intention from the perspective of social identity, which contributes to opening the “black box” of the transmitting processes from the perceived ethical climate to whistle-blowing intention. This study also extends the literature by defining a boundary condition of risk aversion that hinders organizational identification influence on employee whistle-blowing intention.

The purpose of this paper is to use survey data to examine the impact of culture on current and future accounting and auditing professionals' intent to be whistle‐blowers in a Chinese cultural society.

The paper examines intent to whistle‐blow and factors influencing whistle‐blowing, using survey data collected by the authors.

It was found that a majority of respondents believe that a general sense of morality was the most important factor to encourage whistle‐blowing, with abiding by the policy of their organization as the second; it was also found that guanxi, fear of retaliation, and fear of media coverage may discourage whistle‐blowing in a Chinese society.

The data are all from Confucian societies, which perhaps limits its usefulness elsewhere.

The paper will help auditors, accountants, and policy makers to design policies that encourage whistle‐blowing.

The paper uses original survey data collected by the authors, and the analysis will enable policy makers and professional accountants to anticipate and predict whistle‐blowing, a key factor in improving financial management and reporting, and possibly undermining auditor independence, audit quality, and the quality of financial reporting.

Research on whistle-blowing has focused on the questions of who blows the whistle, who experiences retaliation, and who is effective in stopping wrongdoing. In this article, we review research pertinent to the first of these questions. Since the last known review (Near & Miceli, 1996), there have been important theoretical and, to a lesser extent, empirical developments. In addition, the U.S. law is changing dramatically, which may serve to promote valid whistle-blowing, and international interest in whistle-blowing is widespread and increasing. Unfortunately, evidence strongly suggests that media, popular, and regulatory interest is far outpacing the growth of careful scholarly inquiry into the topic, which is a disturbing trend. Here, we argue that the primary causes of the underdevelopment of the empirical literature are methodological, and that workable solutions are needed but very difficult to implement. By calling attention to these issues, we hope to help encourage more research on whistle-blowing.

This study aims to investigate the whistle-blowing behaviour in Ugandan public procurement by using whistle-blowing supporting institutions, procuring and disposing entity (PDE) ethical climate and whistle-blowing expectancy.

A quantitative cross-sectional survey was conducted using a sample of 118 drawn from a population of 179 central government (PDEs). Data were collected using self-administered questionnaires, resulting in 222 usable questionnaires from 70 PDEs, representing a response rate of 62.71 per cent.

The results reveal that the whistle-blowing supporting institutions and PDE ethical climate are significant predictors of whistle-blowing intentions and behaviour, accounting for 30.2 per cent of the variance. The authors therefore recommend that whistle-blowing supporting institutions, like the Whistle Blowers Protection Act, should be reviewed and strengthened to promote whistle-blowing intentions and behaviour. This could be done through reviewing the Act to make it enforceable, giving power to the whistle-blowers, strengthening policies, developing safeguards against retaliation by making every chief executive officer in the public sector accountable, increasing whistle-blowing incentives and providing whistle-blowing hotlines for anonymous whistle-blowers. PDEs should also create conducive ethical climates that encourage people to voice their concerns internally or externally, and ethical committees should be established within PDEs and other bodies such as the Inspector General of Government for ensuring that whistle-blowing systems are in place and promoted. There is a need to increase whistle-blowing expectancy through the effective handling of reported cases to their conclusion and the use of role models.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a validated food safety whistle-blowing scale and examine how training influences food handlers’ whistle-blowing, the mediating roles of job satisfaction and food safety self-efficacy and the moderating roles of organization type and gender.

A sample of 734 food handlers from the food service industry and 306 food handlers from the food processing industry were recruited. A two-step psychometric process was conducted to validate the scale, and a moderated mediation model was used to examine the mechanisms through which food safety training influences whistle-blowing.

The results showed that job satisfaction and self-efficacy fully mediated the relationship between training and whistle-blowing. Organization type moderated the first step of the two indirect paths and gender moderated the second step, thereby supporting the mediated-moderated model.

The results indicate the influence of food safety training programs on whistle-blowing behaviors and suggest other methods of enhancing employee whistle-blowing through human resource management.

A validated scale is lacking to measure whistle-blowing in the food safety context, and little research has examined the influence of human resource practices on whistle-blowing. This study provides meaningful insights for researchers by developing and validating food safety the whistle-blowing scale, connecting training with whistle-blowing, and provides useful information for practitioners by offering the methods of enhancing whistleblowing in both the food processing and food service industry.

This study aims to use organisational justice theory to examine variations in the propensity of trainee auditors in South Africa to blow the whistle internally on misconduct by an engagement leader.

Three vignettes describing high and low states of distributive, procedural and interactive justice are presented to a sample of trainee auditors. A questionnaire is used to gauge the likelihood of trainees blowing the whistle after taking into account a number of control variables. Preliminary results are analysed using parametric t-tests and one-way ANOVA’s.

The study finds that the likelihood of trainee auditors reporting an engagement leader for misconduct increases when there is a high level of distributive, interactional and procedural justice. Gender, age, seniority, the importance of religion and performance ratings does not appear to have an effect on the propensity to whistle-blowing.

The growing importance of an effective mechanism for reporting malfeasance is reflected in both the academic and professional literature. Prior research has found that ensuring high levels of organisational justice is one means of promoting whistle-blowing in a professional setting. This paper argues that the same applies to trainee auditors. In turn, this suggests that audit firms wanting to implement sound audit quality control practices should be mindful of how their whistle-blowing policies are implemented and perceived by their junior staff.

This paper is the first to apply organisational justice theory in a South African setting with specific reference to trainee auditors. As such, it makes an important contribution to the literature on whistle-blowing. The findings should also be of interest to the audit profession when seeking to implement effective quality control and monitoring systems, as required by the relevant professional standards.