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This study seeks to examine the links between employee agreeableness, group performance, and peers' perceptions of threat of retaliation, through relationship conflict.

In a laboratory setting, 42 groups of undergraduate students (N = 182) from a Pakistani university were assigned to group projects to be completed within four months. Data collected from three different questionnaires at four different times and actual scores awarded by the course instructor to each group were used for the analyses. Based on r_WG(J) and ICC(1), level 1 (182 students') data were aggregated to level 2 (groups), and then analysed using regression analysis followed by Preacher and Hayes' bootstrapping procedure.

Results suggest that high agreeableness predicts group performance positively and peers' perceptions of threat of retaliation negatively. Moreover, relationship conflict among group members significantly mediates the agreeableness-group performance relationship. The above relationships may be sensitive to national culture.

In this study, groups were formed for a few months, whereas in real organizational life, workgroups are formed for different durations. Therefore, the range of situations to which these findings generalize remains an open question.

Agreeableness of group members can be constructive for performance of the group. Managers may utilize this insight while forming groups, and rating performance.

There is dearth of research illuminating how employee's personality traits affect group performance and appraisal ratings. The study tests the effects of employee agreeableness on: (1) group performance, as rated by supervisors; (2) the threat of retaliation, as perceived by peer raters; and (3) the mediating effect of relationship conflict.

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 show that, instead of replacing trade retaliation with alternatives that are equally problematic, such as monetary damages, mandatory trade compensation, or formal membership sanctions, the World Trade Organization (WTO) might gain from relying exclusively on informal remedies.

The paper critically reviews the main proposals brought forward in the literature and by WTO members on how to reform WTO remedies. It takes a fresh look at whether any viable, both economically and legally sensitive, alternatives exist.

First, the fact that WTO dispute settlement does not rely on monetary damages and on reparation for past losses is economically justified. Second, switching to an alternative remedy of mandatory trade compensation is not a viable alternative to proportional countermeasures. Third, introducing formal membership sanctions into the WTO would either remain ineffective or turn out to be counterproductive for progressive trade liberalization. Fourth, in order not to provoke an excessive increase of the total cost for WTO members to breach their obligations, any strengthening of the WTO's informal remedies should not be undertaken on top of existing remedies, but as part of a major paradigm shift built on the abrogation of trade retaliation.

The article contributes to the ongoing debate on how to reform the WTO's dispute settlement mechanism.

This article joins an already vast body of literature dealing with potential reforms of the WTO's dispute settlement mechanism. It provides a holistic review of the main existing reform proposals under both legal and economic aspects and adds original insights in discussing the replacement of trade remedies by strengthened informal remedies.

This study aims to examine the effects of peer ethical behavior and individual differences in valuation of fairness vs loyalty on whistleblowing intentions in academic settings. This study also tests the underlying mechanism responsible for the effects of peer behavior on reporting intentions, namely, fear of reprisal.

A survey was conducted with 947 undergraduate students. The model was tested using ordinary least squares regression models followed by bootstrapped mediation analyses.

Results showed that the effects of peer ethical behavior on whistleblowing intentions are mediated by fear of retaliation. Moreover, the findings indicated that, for low-severity transgressions, there is an interactive effect between fear of retaliation and endorsement of fairness over loyalty on whistleblowing intentions.

When the misconduct is seen as minor, a potential whistleblower may understand that the expected costs outweigh the possible benefits of blowing the whistle. In such situations, higher fear of retaliation would undermine the effects of individual’s endorsement of fairness over loyalty on reporting intentions.

As the social environment significantly affects someone’s whistleblowing intentions, there should be visible efforts to improve and to foster an ethical infrastructure in organizations.

As fear of retaliation by peers is one of the most important determinants affecting the decision to report misconduct in general, there must be serious efforts from leaders to mitigate any threat of retaliation to those who come forward.

This work contributes to the discussion about individual and situational antecedents of whistleblowing. More importantly, it sheds light on one potential boundary condition for the influence of the fairness–loyalty tradeoff on whistleblowing decisions: severity of the transgression. The findings provide initial evidence that, for low-severity transgressions, fear of retaliation weakens the positive effects of one’s moral compass in terms of preference for fairness over loyalty on whistleblowing intentions.

Retaliation complaints in the workplace have increased 71 percent in the past ten years with a record high of more than 32,000 complaints filed in 2008. The purpose of this paper is to review retaliation legislation to clarify for employers and employees the protected provisions and provide guidance for complying with this important anti‐discrimination statute to aid in promoting a fair and unbiased work environment.

This paper reviews retaliation claims in cases of US employment discrimination including the central elements and covered individuals. It also reviews key recent rulings that have broadened what constitutes retaliation to better understand its impact in workforce management practices. Equity and organizational justice theories are drawn upon to address performance management and employee discipline issues that may arise in the workplace and how organizational action may be impacted by the retaliation statute.

Retaliation is often considered to be an overt act (e.g. demotion or termination) but this review demonstrates that adverse employment actions need not be overt or result from loss of job or wages by the employee. This review can be used to avoid costly litigation but also convey that retaliation statutes do not unduly influence the employer's right to discipline employees.

This paper helps practitioners and researchers better understand retaliation and its purpose in preventing unfair work practices. This historical review of retaliation should help improve employer policies and procedures as well as training efforts in complying with equal employment opportunity laws without compromising concerns related to productivity or disciplinary procedures.

A survey of the literature shows that researchers have assessed the social processes of retaliation among adversarial crime prone populations. However, notably absent from this research is the study of peer retaliation among non‐adversarial and less crime prone populations, such as police officers. The underlying theoretical premise is that peer retaliation, defined here as a mechanism of social control, operates under prevailing police culture conditions.Using focus group interviews collected from one large Southwestern police department, content analysis is used to qualitatively examine the influence of peer retaliation on officer deviance (i.e. reporting incidents of illegal force). The results show that officers' rationalize peer retaliation according to morality and deterrence; while, types of retaliation sanctioned against peers include ostracism and no cover. The implications of these findings are considered.

The purpose of this study is to examine the key predictors of whistleblowing intention of accountants within the organization. By relying on the benefit-to-cost differential theory, this study examines the influence of professional skepticism, cognitive styles and perceived organizational support on whistleblowing intentions while controlling for the effect of some demographic variables on the estimated results. Further, the authors ascertain whether the threat of retaliation moderates the relationship between professional skepticism and whistleblowing intentions.

Data was obtained from professional accountants licensed by the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana by means of self-administered questionnaires. The partial least square-structural equation modeling technique was used to test for the hypothesized relationships in this study.

The results of this study suggest the intention to report wrongdoing within the organization is influenced by individuals’ level of professional skepticism, cognitive style and the perception that they will have the backing of their organization in reporting wrongdoing. Moreover, the authors also find females and individuals who have advanced in age to have greater motivation to report wrongdoing in the organization.

This study contributes to whistleblowing literature by highlighting the effect of professional skepticism on whistleblowing intentions. Also, this study provides empirical support for the applicability of the benefit-to-cost differential theory to the whistleblowing literature.

This paper aims to examine the predictors of whistleblowing behaviors by comparing the importance of a negative perception – fear of whistleblowing – relative to positive perceptions such as ethical orientation, professional identity and supervisor trust.

The proposed hypotheses were tested using relative regression analysis with data collected from 471 banking employees in nine Chinese organizations.

The findings conclude that fear of retaliation was dominant in predicting external, but not internal, whistleblowing, and the beneficial effects of positive perceptions on internal whistleblowing are contingent on employees’ fear of retaliation. Therefore, organizations should survey employees’ perceptions of whistleblowing and their company retaliation policies to accomplish the goal of promoting ethical behaviors while discouraging unethical behaviors.

The findings suggest that efforts to promote whistleblowing in organizations may be most successful if the focus is placed on deterring retaliation and highlighting for employees that they will be protected from retaliation.

The relative weights analyses suggest that fear of retaliation from whistleblowing is the dominant predictor of external whistleblowing; as fear of retaliation increases, so does the desire to blow the whistle externally.

This paper aims to address the limitations of classical deterrence theory in dealing with violent non-state actors (VNSAs).

The study uses qualitative methods.

It suggests that two measures must be applied; the first one is to rephrase the assumptions of the theory towards a broader definition. The second one is to theorize certain approaches for deterring VNSAs which shall remain a key component in, but not the cornerstone of, national security strategies.

In the aftermath of 9/11 attacks and US war on terrorism, the need arose to “revisit” the “Deterrence Theory” to address several changes such as rogue states, cyber threats and VNSAs, especially after the end of the Cold War, when the theory was originally developed. The recent research on VNSAs relates to the fourth wave of deterrence, which highlights its proper role in a new security environment.

An increase in the number of disruptive and violent events on college and university campuses instigated this review of the methods used to interrupt the trend, with the goal of identifying a preliminary model for systematic management of such threats. The intent is to instigate research, review and discussion in order to decrease the number and severity of threatening incidents on college campuses.

Thorough review of plans from primary and secondary education, plans in use in higher education, literature on risk and threat assessment, literature on “whistle blowers”, and of violent events on college campuses was used to construct a model.

It was found that, in terms of managing and reducing threats to people who study, live and work in post‐secondary educational institutions, insufficient attention has been given to the unique needs of this setting and therefore efforts to mitigate threats have been insufficient. The investigation resulted in the development of a model of assessment and management of threats on university and college campuses.

College campus threat assessment research is very much in its infancy and will certainly develop over time. This paper is the first step in an effort to develop and ultimately test the plausibility of a model. Future research should be pursued to determinewhether the model holds up under a majority of situations on college campuses. Those involved in threat mitigation in university settings should be queried to determine their agreement with the proposed framework and for assistance in refining it.

This paper presents suggestions for the systematic management of threats and mitigation in university settings.