Predictors of responses to organizational wrongdoing: a study of intentions of management accountants

It has been proposed that employees aware of organizational wrong-doing face two decisions: whether or not to blow the whistle and whether or not to leave their organizations. Of these only the decision to blow the whistle has received attention, leaving a gap in knowledge; thus, a survey of 330 management accountants was analyzed to examine potential predictors of intended responses to organizational wrongdoing. Analysis of ratings indicated that intent to leave increased with seriousness of wrongdoing and expected retaliation for whistleblowing and decreased with expected effectiveness of whistleblowing. Intent to stay and blow the whistle increased with expected effectiveness of whistleblowing and role responsibility for reporting and decreased with expected retaliation for whistleblowing; intent to leave and blow the whistle increased with expected effectiveness of whistleblowing and role responsibility for reporting.