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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.

M. Ronald Buckley is a Professor of Management and a Professor of Psychology and the holder of the JC Penney Company Business Leadership Chair in the Michael F. Price College of Business at the University of Oklahoma. He received his Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Auburn University. His research interests are diverse and include decision making in the employment interview, performance evaluation, organizational entry processes, and the issues surrounding unethical behavior in organizations. He has published over 70 refereed journal articles in, among others, the Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, Applied Psychological Measurement, Journal of Management, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes on topics related to human resource management issues.

Unethical business decisions and accounting fraud have occurred as a result of lapses in ethical sensitivity and judgment. The Association for Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) estimates that a typical organization loses 5% of its total yearly revenues to fraud; globally this translates into losses of over three trillion dollars each year (ACFE, 2016). Regulations such as the Dodd-Frank Whistleblower Program and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act encourage reporting wrongdoing to mitigate fraud losses. Although there are many studies that explore the characteristics of whistleblowers, there are few studies that have examined the impact of an individual’s level of moral reasoning on whistleblowing intentions for financial statement fraud. This study offers several contributions over prior research by exploring the impact of two measures of moral reasoning (P-score and the N2-score) on decisions to whistleblow to either internal or external reporting outlets. This study finds that an individual’s level of moral reasoning impacts whistleblowing intentions to internal management, but an individual’s level of moral reasoning does not impact decisions to whistleblow externally. The practical implications of these findings are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the ability of enterprise systems and embedded controls to prevent unethical behavior within organizations.

The authors use a case study to explore how the configuration of information technology (IT) controls within enterprise systems and their effectiveness in preventing unethical behavior is compromised by the tone at the top.

The study highlights the decisive role of cultural values and leadership in moderating the relationship between IT controls and unethical behavior and the realization that ethical environments are socially constructed not enforced.

The limitation of this research is that the authors conducted one case study in an institution of higher education to refute the theory that IT controls embedded within enterprise systems can prevent unethical, and thus, the results may not be generalizable to other industries.

An important implication of the research is that the configuration of information system controls is affected by the organizational culture and the ethical values embraced by top management. When the tone at the top does not emphasize the ethical code of conduct, the configuration of IT controls will be compromised leaving organizations vulnerable at all levels.

Although the authors have a wealth of knowledge on ethics and theories that explain why unethical decision-making continue to surface to the headlines, they have little explanation as to why enterprise systems fail to stop unethical behavior in organizations. This study explores technical, organizational and individual factors that contribute to unethical decision-making.

The purpose of this paper is to consolidate research in whistleblowing, wrongdoing prevention and enterprise risk management (ERM) frameworks with the goal of creating a more comprehensive and effective framework for the prevention of wrongdoings.

A gap analysis based on organizational learning theory (OLT) is performed between the research fields of whistleblowing, wrongdoing prevention and ERM to identify enhancements that are needed for effective wrongdoing prevention.

ERM is an incomplete framework for wrongdoing prevention which omits the components of prevention and learning. A culture of continuous learning is required to minimize the experience component of learning and maximizing sharing. Storytelling can be used to protect individuals and provide transparency. The stakeholder dimension must be expanded beyond the borders of the legal entity to include all stakeholders. Every stakeholder experiences the climate of wrongdoing prevention differently, and the evaluation of these different perspectives is essential in establishing a culture of prevention. Personal psychological safety is a critical element in empowering stakeholders to discuss and address wrongdoings. Standards established through professional associations enable innovations to diffuse more quickly throughout society than legislation. Standards and standard setting processes that are able to adapt to changes in societal expectations proactively help organizations to independently protect stakeholders. Global standards are needed to overcome incongruences between countries and cultures.

The effectiveness of a prevention framework is difficult to measure. Declining incidence of wrongdoing within an institution is an incomplete picture. Rare and severe types of wrongdoing, and their prevention throughout society should require a more concerted, centralized approach which could be modeled upon the health system’s national centers for disease prevention. By combining the dimensions of the learning organization questionnaire(Marsick and Watkins, 2003) and Whistleblowing and Wrongdoing statistics, organizations should be able to develop complex KPIs and be able monitor their development over time. Researchers should be able to use the same strategy to confirm the assertions made here will improve the safety and security of all stakeholders.

Organizations which use ERM frameworks may be unable to effectively prevent wrongdoings and protect stakeholders from the consequences of such wrongdoings. The shortcomings identified here provide specific clear points that organizations can address to be more effective in preventing wrongdoings. Any one of these actions and the scope of their impact within the organization and their environment represent substantial challenges for all stakeholders. Like the ascent of a great mountain, the planning of the each step taken and thorough understanding of the challenges faced along the path to each waypoint are essential to reach the summit and the achieve the objective.

This paper advocates for changes that may take decades or generations to fully accept: inter-organizational sharing; stronger use of guidelines instead of legislation; and enhanced transparency on all organizational levels. The resources required to drive change on this scale are considerable with the private sector and public sectors having unique needs and requiring potentially different approaches.

The novelty lies in the identification of shortcomings in ERM frameworks to effectively prevent wrongdoing, through the integration of OLT, Whistleblowing and Wrongdoing Literature and the COSO Enterprise Risk Management Framework.

The purpose of the study is to examine the role of legitimacy in forming whistleblowing behavior in Ugandan procuring and disposing entities (PDEs).

This study has adopted both a quantitative and qualitative cross-sectional research design to collect data from a sample of 97 out of the population of 129 PDEs in Kampala, which are regulated by the Public Procurement and Disposal of Assets Authority.

This paper finds that improvement in the perception of public servants about the appropriateness of the Whistleblowers Act and its enforcers can increase on the reporting of unethical practices in public procurement.

This study has used a cross-sectional survey data. The causal relationships between variables are possibly obscured; as data from all participants are collected at the same point of time, perceptions go on changing over time. Therefore, further studies should use a longitudinal approach. Second, there are no constructs for legitimacy in public procurement and those from law are domesticated.

There should be a promotion of legitimacy of the Whistleblowers Act and the enforcement agencies of the Act. The government should devise means for the public servants to have an obligation to obey the holders of authority, to trust and have confidence in them and to enforce the Whistleblowers Act in an ethical and normative framework.

This study reveals the whistleblowing intentions and behavior of public servants in PDEs. This study would help the Government of Uganda to make the Whistleblowing Act legitimate and its enforcers to increase on the reporting of unethical practices in public procurement.