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I Report if They Report: The Role of Media in Whistleblowing Intentions on Fraud and Corruption

Sebastian Oelrich (Technische Universität Dresden, Germany)

Organizational Wrongdoing as the “Foundational” Grand Challenge: Consequences and Impact

ISBN: 978-1-83753-283-4, eISBN: 978-1-83753-282-7

Publication date: 25 July 2023

Abstract

Researchers and practitioners recognize whistleblowers and the media as disparate control agents to uncover fraud and corruption in and by organizations. However, whistleblowing is mainly studied in relation to individual and organizational antecedents. Social norms and in particular the media as a form of social norm influence or norm conveyer on whistleblowing are largely unexplored. In this paper, I study the influence of perceived critical media coverage (i.e., whether media are perceived as criticizing fraud and corruption) on whistleblowing intentions (WBI) on fraud and corruption. I draw on norm activation theory to develop a moderation-mediation model of whistleblowing to highlight how the media can convey social norms influencing WBI. Using a cross-national survey of employees from China, Germany, and Russia (n = 1,159), I hypothesize and find that media directly influence employee attitudes toward fraud and corruption as well as the likelihood to whistle blow. Critical media coverage also reduces the influence of descriptive norms by co-worker misconduct on attitudes and the negative influence of fear of retaliation on WBI. This paper is the first to highlight the importance of critical mass media on whistleblowing decisions. My findings suggest that the media influence potential whistleblowers in a way that can be described along the lines of “I report if they report.”

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Claudia Gabbioneta (issue editor), Nicole Siebold, Henry Walde, as well as an anonymous reviewer for very helpful and constructive comments on earlier versions of this manuscript. I would also like to thank Kai-D. Bussmann for allowing me to use this dataset freely and to have been part of this research project.

Data Availability

Data are available from the author upon request.

Citation

Oelrich, S. (2023), "I Report if They Report: The Role of Media in Whistleblowing Intentions on Fraud and Corruption", Gabbioneta, C., Clemente, M. and Greenwood, R. (Ed.) Organizational Wrongdoing as the “Foundational” Grand Challenge: Consequences and Impact (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 85), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 101-120. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20230000085006

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited