Much of the unethical behavior occurring in modern organizations that comes to light is first identified and reported by insiders: organization members who are willing to blow the whistle. Data from surveys of federal employees conducted since 1980 by the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) have been analyzed by researchers. These studies have taught us quite a lot about whistle-blowing, but we still need to learn much more. We present here a summary of results from research on the incidence of wrongdoing and whistleblowing, predictors of whistle-blowing, predictors of retaliation against whistle-blowers, and predictors of overall effectiveness of whistle-blowers in getting wrongdoing stopped. We describe key findings and suggest new directions for future research and policy to address the critical questions still remaining concerning whistle-blowing.
Ashforth, B.E., & Anand, V. (2003). The normalization of corruption in organizations . In R. M. Kramer & B. M. Staw (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior (Vol. 25, pp. 1-52). Amsterdam : Elsevier.
2.
Ban, C. (1995). How do public managers manage? Bureaucratic constraints, organizational culture, and the potential for reform. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
3.
Barakat, M. (2004, May 6). Whistle-blower wins claim against Atlantic Coast Airlines. The Washington Post, p. E04.
4.
Brehm, J., & Gates, S. (1997). Working, shirking, and sabotage: Bureaucratic response to a democratic public. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
5.
Brewer, G.A. (1996). Incidence of whistleblowing in the public and private sectors. Athens: Department of Political Science, University of Georgia.
6.
Brewer, G.A., & Selden, S.C. (1998). Whistle blowers in the federal civil service: New evidence of the public service ethic. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 8, 413-439.
7.
Cortina, L.M., & Magley, V.J. (2003). Raising voice, risking retaliation: Events following interpersonal mistreatment in the workplace. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 8, 247-265.
8.
Dozier, J.B., & Miceli, M.P. (1985). Potential predictors of whistle-blowing: A prosocial behavior perspective. Academy of Management Review, 10, 823-836.
9.
Dworkin, T.M., & Near, J.P. (1987). Whistle-blowing statutes: Are they working? American Business Law Journal, 25, 241-264.
10.
Dworkin, T.M. (2007). SOX and whistleblowing. Michigan Law Review, 105, 1757-1780.
11.
Ewing, D.W. (1983). Do it my way-or you're fired! Employee rights and the changing role of management prerogatives. New York : John Wiley.
12.
Garvey, G. (1993). Facing the bureaucracy: Living and dying in a public agency. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass .
13.
Golden, M.M. (2000). What motivates bureaucrats? Politics and administration during the Reagan years. New York: Columbia Press.
14.
Gundlach, M.J., Douglas, S.C., & Martinko, M.J. (2003). The decision to blow the whistle: A social information processing framework. Academy of Management Review, 28(1), 107-123.
15.
Gurchiek, K. (2006, May). U.S. workers unlikely to report office misconduct . HR Magazine, 29, 38.
16.
Kelman, S. (2005). Unleashing change: A study of organizational renewal in government. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
17.
King, G., III. (1997). The effects of interpersonal closeness and issue seriousness on blowing the whistle. Journal of Business Communication , 34, 419-436.
18.
Maranto, R. (1993). Still clashing after all these years: Ideological conflict in the Reagan executive. American Journal of Political Science, 37, 681-698.
19.
Maranto, R. (1999, November). Turkey farm. Washington Monthly. Retrieved March 7, 2007, from http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/1999/9911.maranto.turkey.html
20.
Miceli, M.P., & Near, J.P. (1984). The relationships among beliefs, organizational position, and whistleblowing status: A discriminant analysis. Academy of Management Journal, 27, 687-705.
21.
Miceli, M.P., & Near, J.P. (1985). Characteristics of organizational climate and perceived wrongdoing associated with whistle-blowing decisions. Personnel Psychology, 38, 525-544.
22.
Miceli, M.P., & Near, J.P. (1988). Individual and situational correlates of whistle-blowing . Personnel Psychology, 41, 267-282.
23.
Miceli, M.P., & Near, J.P. (1992). Blowing the whistle: The organizational and legal implications for companies and employees. New York: Lexington.
24.
Miceli, M.P., & Near, J.P. (1997). Whistle-blowing as antisocial behavior. In R. Giacalone & J. Greenberg (Eds.), Antisocial behavior in organizations (pp. 130-149). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
25.
Miceli, M.P., & Near, J.P. (2002). What makes whistle-blowers effective? Three field studies. Human Relations, 55, 455-479.
26.
Miceli, M.P., & Near, J.P. (2005). Standing up or standing by: What predicts blowing the whistle on organizational wrongdoing? In J. Martocchio (Ed.), Research in personnel and human resources management (Vol. 24, pp. 95-136). Greenwich, CT: JAI/Elsevier.
27.
Miceli, M.P., Near, J.P., & Dworkin, T.M. (2008). Whistle-blowing in organizations. London: Taylor & Francis.
28.
Miceli, M.P., Near, J.P., & Schwenk, C.P. (1991). Who blows the whistle and why?Industrial & Labor Relations Review, 45, 113-130.
29.
Miceli, M.P., Rehg, M., Near, J.P., & Ryan, K. (1999). Can laws protect whistle-blowers? Results of a naturally occurring field experiment. Work and Occupations , 26, 129-151.
30.
Miethe, T.D. (1999). Whistle-blowing at work: Tough choices in exposing fraud, waste and abuse on the job (2nd ed.). Boulder, CO: Westview.
31.
Moberly, R.E. (2007). Unfulfilled expectations: An empirical analysis of why Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblowers rarely win. William and Mary Law Review, 49, 65-155.
32.
National Whistleblower Center. (2007). Whistleblowers still the best at detecting fraud. Available from http://www.whistleblowers.org/
33.
Near, J.P., & Jensen, T.C. (1983). The whistle-blowing process: Retaliation and perceived effectiveness. Work and Occupations, 10, 3-28.
34.
Near, J.P., & Miceli, M.P. (1985). Organizational dissidence: The case of whistle-blowing . Journal of Business Ethics, 4, 1-16.
35.
Near, J.P., & Miceli, M.P. (1995). Effective whistle-blowing. Academy of Management Review, 20, 679-708.
36.
Near, J.P., Van Scotter, J.R., Rehg, M.T., & Miceli, M.P. (2004). Does type of wrongdoing affect the whistle-blowing process? Business Ethics Quarterly, 14, 219-242.
37.
O'Donnell, J. (2004). Whistle-blowers form a breed apart. Retrieved July 29, 2004, from http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/management/2004-07-29-whistle-blower-main_x.htm?POE=click-refer
38.
Organ, D.W. (1988). Organizational citizenship behavior: The good soldier syndrome. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.
Pearlstein, S. (2005, March 30). Chamber misses moral of Enron story . The Washington Post, p. E1.
41.
Perry, J.L. (1992, August). The consequences of speaking out: Processes of hostility and issue resolution involving federal whistleblowers. Paper presented at the meeting of the Academy of Management, Las Vegas, NV.
42.
Perry, J.L., & Wise, L.R. (1990). The motivational bases of public service. Public Administration Review, 50, 367-373.
43.
Rehg, M.T., Miceli, M.P., Near, J.P., & Van Scotter, J.R. (2008). Antecedents and outcomes of retaliation against whistle-blowers: Gender differences and power relationships . Organization Science, 19, 221-240.
44.
Sarbanes-Oxley Act (Corporate and Auditing Accountability, Responsibility, and Transparency Act of 2002), PL 107-204, 116 Stat 745 (2002).
45.
Schulman, D. (May 31, 2007). A tip for whistleblowers: Don't. The Wall Street Journal, p. B6.
46.
Staw, B.M., Sandelands, L.E., & Dutton, J. (1981). Threat-rigidity effects in organizational behavior: A multilevel analysis. Administrative Science Quarterly, 26, 501-524.
47.
U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board. (1981 ). Whistle-blowing and the federal employee. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
48.
U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board. (1984 ). Blowing the whistle in the federal government: A comparative analysis of 1980 and 1983 survey findings. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
49.
U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board. (1993 ). Whistle-blowing in the federal government: An update. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
50.
Van Scotter, J.R., Miceli, M.P., Near, J.P., & Rehg, M.T. (2005). What difference can one person make? Organizational dependence relations as predictors of whistle-blowing effectiveness. International Journal of Knowledge, Culture and Change Management, 4. Retrieved December 30, 2005, from http://ijm.cgpublisher.com/product/pub.28/prod.65
51.
Weinstein, D. (1979). Bureaucratic opposition. New York: Pergamon.
