Intention to whistleblow: Perception of reporting skill mediates the predicting role of class consciousness and perceived probability of revenge

Introduction

The prevalence of corruption in business is a serious issue that may harm both the company’s finances and society at large. According to Castro and Phillips (2020), corporate corruption is the abuse of official power for personal gain. They also stress that it hinders national growth and undermines effective governance. Bribery, nepotism, and misuse of insider knowledge are just a few of the various ways that corruption in businesses can manifest itself (Argandoña, 2001).

Whistleblowing is considered a potential instrument in the fight against corruption. Salihu (2019) emphasized the benefits of Nigeria’s whistleblowing policy, which led to the identification and recovery of stolen public assets as well as the conviction of offenders. Aruzzi (2019) discussed the implementation of whistleblower systems as a means to discourage and uncover corruption within governmental organizations in Indonesia. Carr and Lewis (2010) examined the potential of employment law to fight corruption by imposing obligations on those within the workplace to report corrupt activities and protecting whistleblowers.

When disclosures are made with an accurate intention and adhere to certain communication requirements when addressing matters of public interest, whistleblowing can be justified (Kumar and Santoro, 2017). Lewis et al. (2014) claimed that scholars and policymakers need to better understand the intricacies and effects of whistleblowing since it is an essential procedure for holding institutions accountable.

The goal of this study is to develop a model that, using a combination of social psychological characteristics, predicts whistleblower intention. Based on the idea of planned behavior, this study draws the assumption that whistleblowing intention is an immediate antecedent of whistleblowing activity (Ajzen, 2020). The degree to which a person has made deliberate arrangements to engage in or refrain from engaging in a certain future activity is known as intention, or behavioral intention (Davis and Warshaw, 1992; Warshaw and Davis, 1985).

Nevertheless, the formation of the intention is not simple. Particularly in cases where there is no legal protection, whistleblowers frequently experience personal risk and harsh reprisal. When whistleblowers feel that they have more power and support, they are more likely to be successful in exposing wrongdoing (Miceli and Near 2002). Strong proof and successful whistleblowing go hand in hand (Apaza and Chang, 2011). Whistleblowers must possess specialized knowledge, access, and skill, according to UNODC (n.d.), that enables them to identify corruption or other serious issues that could otherwise go unnoticed. According to MacNab and Worthley (2008), in this situation, the perception of one’s competence to perform a task was a reliable predictor of their inclination to come forward, i.e. to blow the whistle.

Fear of reprisal is negatively connected to whistleblowing intents, particularly when it comes to vengeance or retaliation (Dhamija and Rai, 2018; Khan et al., 2022). If they perceive a larger fear of reprisal, whistleblowers are more likely to choose to keep quiet. Positive impressions such as professional identity, ethical orientation, and supervisor trust were dependent on employees’ fear of reprisals in a company (Yang and Xu, 2020).

Paradoxically, then, a person could be motivated to become more competent or skilled at making whistleblower reports if they believe that retaliation is likely to happen. Several study findings form the basis for this idea. One may also want to counterblow if they believe that others would retaliate unfairly as a result of their whistleblowing (Kim and Smith, 1993). In this instance, seeking retribution may be a way for a whistleblower to attain (self-)justice in situations when institutionalized advocacies from authorities are scarce (Jäggi and Kliewer, 2016). Whistleblowers need to have more than just bare-bones competence in order to exact “moral, sweet revenge” (Gert, 2020). A whistleblower’s drive to succeed in a later activity that supports their competence can be increased by prior competence dissatisfaction (Fang et al., 2018). People who exaggerate their performance do so in response to a threat to their performance (Wakeman et al., 2019). According to the cognitive dissonance and self-affirmation theories, a person can resolve the discrepancy between their true and false selves by developing their capacities (Aronson et al., 1999). In conclusion, people may be motivated to become more skilled or competent whistleblowers in order to anticipate or manage reprisal if they perceive retaliation or revenge to be likely.

By affecting the trade-off between justice and loyalty, class consciousness may also be a motivator for whistleblowing (Dungan et al., 2015). According to Crossley (2013), class consciousness—the recognition of oneself (“the proletariat”) as a class and of one’s collective strength—can inspire a revolution against “the bourgeoisie” and maybe thwart corruption. The relative comparisons a person draws between their socioeconomic circumstances and those of other groups are connected to this awareness (Gartrell, 1987; Stacks, 1984).

Anvari (2019) offers a comprehensive theory of whistleblowing that incorporates social identity theorizing. This theory explains when and how social identities and types of power influence group members to report ingroup misconduct by using whistleblowing. The whistleblowing process may be motivated by collective identities and power dynamics, and it may also play a significant role in the control of moral and legal behavior, according to the model. Marxist classics have long underlined the significance of this issue, and Feng-wei’s (2006) conclusions that a systematic cultural mechanism is required to resist corruption and promote incorruptibility support the entire logic that emphasizes the relevance of class consciousness.

Whistleblowing, according to Couto et al. (2020), can be justified as an ethical duty to assist the group, motivated by solidarity and responsibility for the other. In other words, class consciousness can motivate political activity (Portes, 1971); in the case of the current study, this political action is to expose corruption. Because of this, a company employee who is aware of their class must not become mired in a false consciousness that would hinder them from comprehending their shared interest in standing up to their exploiters (Ishfaq et al., 2021).

According to the preceding explanation, perceived reporting competence (1) is predicted by class consciousness and the likelihood of retaliation, and (2) predicts the desire to report wrongdoing. Perceived reporting competency may act as a mediator between the two variables’ impacts on whistleblowing intention in an integrative theoretical framework. The aim of this study is to investigate the mediation hypothesis, which claims that perceived reporting abilities can mediate the link between class consciousness and intention to report corruption as well as between perceived likelihood of retaliation and the intention.

Methods

Results

Demographically, some participants were residents of DKI Jakarta province (N=119) which is the capital of Indonesia. In addition, other participants were residents of the Java Island (non-DKI Jakarta; N=235); Sulawesi Island (N=10); Sumatera Island (N=6); Kalimantan Island (N=2); and Bali Island (N=2). The educational composition of the participants is: Bachelor (N=197), High School (N=133), Master (N=21), Diploma (N=20), dan Doctor (N=3). The management/leadership level composition of the participants is: Non Management (Staff, Officer) (N=216), Lower Level Management (Supervisor) (N=59), Middle Level Management (Manager) (N=58), and Top Level Management (Chief Executive Officer, General Manager, Directors) (N=41).

The psychometric properties and descriptive statistics of the variables are shown in Table 1.

The results of this study indicated that:

Figure 1. Research result.

Notes. INT = Whistleblowing Intention; SK = Perception of Reporting Skill or Competence; CC = Class Consciousness; RV = Perceived Probability of Revenge.

Discussion

The current study discovered that empirical evidence supports the hypothetical model that claims perceived reporting skill or competence as a mediator that connects the predictive effects of class consciousness and perceived chance of retaliation on whistleblower intention.

Numerous studies have discovered that the perception of possible retaliation does not necessarily reduce the intention to report wrongdoing. For instance, Mesmer-Magnus and Viswesvaran (2005) claimed that the possibility of revenge (such as job loss or promotion) interacts with contextual factors (such as support from supervisors and coworkers, the size of the company, and organizational environment) to produce the choice to report wrongdoing. According to Kanojia et al. (2020), locus of control and perceived status/power were able to reduce the impact of retaliation on the intention of whistleblowers.

In contrast to earlier studies, the current study is looking for variables that are predicted by perceived retaliation and are also capable of increasing whistleblowing intention, such as perceived reporting competence, rather than variables that moderate the predictive effect of perceived vengeance. The indirect effect that the perception of retaliation probability has on whistleblowing intention is described below.

According to Near and Miceli (1985), a potential whistleblower faces a fundamental conundrum. If he/she reports corruption in his company and it turns out that there is a lot of it, its prevalence will be linked to poorer organizational performance. Additionally, he/she has the chance to face backlash or treachery from the business or from disgruntled employees. The company will, however, likewise drift toward anarchy and mayhem if he does not report—or forgive—so that no one takes remedial action.

Based on the research findings, perceived revenge probability does not prevent whistleblowing intents from developing; rather, it can boost efforts by enhancing reporting abilities, allowing these intentions to be carried out successfully. Borrowing insights from the world of consumer behavior, perceived betrayal is the means to understand customer retaliation (Grégoire and Fisher, 2008). When applied in the context of a whistleblower, employees who become whistleblowers are serving the company by exposing the corruption that exists within them.

The premise of the current study is that a possible whistleblower will be willing to become a “martyr” in order to fulfill his/her noble mission to save the organization from being destroyed by perceived threats of reprisal or revenge (Pegg, 1991; Vinten, 1997). The individual will get ready by improving his or her competence or reporting abilities so that his report does not backfire but is accepted by the organization (for follow-up) and is successful in eradicating corruption. This will ensure that this martyrdom is not in vain.

Individuals with a class consciousness, on the other hand, are aware of injustice and inequality in their surroundings and are even prepared to fight for systemic change (Solt et al., 2017). Given that critical thinking is a part of the awareness (Kaplan, 1994), this is not shocking. Class consciousness is an effect of colonialism, according to Adenekan (2021). As a result of having been colonized by other nations (the Netherlands, England, and Japan) for several centuries, the Indonesian people are not unfamiliar with the experience of class awareness.

The awareness has an effect that significantly promotes taking corrective action to lessen inequality, particularly with those that are thought to “have a greater unfair advantage” (Crean, 2018) — in the context of this research, those who engage in corruption — through whistleblowing. The dynamics of class consciousness, which battle against corruption by enhancing reporting abilities to safeguard working-class solidarity and sustainability, are what lead to whistleblowing intention (Mayer, 1993).

This study’s limitation is the cross-sectional nature of the data collection, which leaves room for the possibility of common method bias to creep in. Future research should employ the longitudinal approach to lessen the inflated correlations that might result from this bias. The research’s conclusion is that additional psychological theoretical models must be developed that (1) help people feel brave or capable of overcoming the possibility of vengeance, and (2) incorporate more psycho-sociological factors like class awareness. Finding models that examine the function of factors that act as a bridge between psychological and sociological ideas is crucial since whistleblowing is neither only an individual or an organizational problem.

Author roles

Juneman Abraham: Conceptualization, Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Funding Acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Resources, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – Original Draft Preparation, Writing –Review and Editing; Christian Jeremia Mangapul: Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project Administration, Resources, Software, Validation, Visualization, Writing – Original Draft Preparation; Destasya Nurcahyani Amaniputri: Data Curation, Formal Analysis, Investigation, Project Administration, Resources, Validation, Visualization, Writing – Original Draft Preparation; Rudi Hartono Manurung: Formal Analysis, Funding Acquisition, Resources, Validation, Visualization, Writing – Original Draft Preparation; Wing Ispurwanto: Conceptualization, Formal Analysis, Funding Acquisition, Project Administration, Resources, Validation, Visualization, Writing – Original Draft Preparation.