Moral Intensity Perceptions and Employees' Ethical Decision Making and Whistleblowing Intentions

Whistleblowing is “the disclosure by organization members (former or current) of illegal, immoral or illegitimate practices under the control of their employers, to persons or organizations that may be able to effect... [ view full abstract ]

Whistleblowing is “the disclosure by organization members (former or current) of illegal, immoral or illegitimate practices under the control of their employers, to persons or organizations that may be able to effect action” (Near and Miceli, 1985, p. 4). Whistleblowing is a rational process (Near and Miceli, 1985) that involves identifying circumstances and reporting issues/problems; organization then respond to complaints. Whistleblowing should be connected to ethical decision making, a similar rational process that is prompted by the recognition and perceived importance of ethical issues and ethical judgments, intentions, and behavior (Rest, 1986; Robin, Reidenbach, and Forrest, 1996). Such ethical reasoning should lead to enhanced whistleblowing due to the presence of similar underlying cognitive components. “Moral intensity” should also be considered when investigating ethical decision making because it can impact how individuals evaluate circumstances surrounding ethical problems (Jones, 1991). These situational characteristics include magnitude of consequences, social consensus, probability of effect, temporal immediacy, proximity, and concentration of effect (Jones, 1991, p. 371). Moral intensity should have considerable bearing on ethical decision making, so it should be considered when assessing employee whistleblowing (Watts and Buckley, forthcoming).

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among perceived moral intensity, employees’ ethical decision making, and whistleblowing intentions. We propose that perceived moral intensity is positively related to ethical decision making; more specifically, as perceptions of seriousness of consequences, social consensus, temporal immediacy, and proximity become stronger, then the recognition and perceived importance of an ethical issue, ethical judgment, and ethical intention will also increase. We also propose that ethical decision making is positively related to whistleblowing intention, or as the components of ethical reasoning become more profound, then whistleblowing intention will also increase. Finally, it is proposed that perceived moral intensity is positively related to the intention to blow the whistle, or more specifically, as perceptions of the moral intensity factors become stronger, then whistleblowing intention also increases.

Such inquiry is important for a number of reasons. Many studies of whistleblowing rely predominantly on rationale decision-making models and cost-benefit paradigms, often not accounting for the role of individual affect in whistleblowing; such a focus overlooks the inherent complexities of the whistleblowing process by ignoring differentials in individual decision-making preferences and motivations (Near and Miceli, 1985; Watts and Buckley, forthcoming). As such, there has also been a growing interest in the identification of the emotional and intuitive factors that are inherent in whistleblowing/ethical decision-making processes and frameworks (Watts and Buckley, forthcoming). 

The current study has the capacity to fill these research gaps because components of ethical reasoning are often driven by affective responses to ethical issues. For instance, an organizational decision-maker’s recognition of and perceived importance of an ethical issue can be influenced by his or her personal feelings (i.e., previous experiences/victimization, emotional connections to those impacted, etc.) connected to the problem encountered (Robin et al., 1996). Likewise, the ethical judgments of the actions that occur in an ethical dilemma, as well as the motivations to behave ethically in a contrary manner, would appear to be connected to similar affective responses to unethical acts.     

In addition, the current study identifies to what extent perceptions of moral intensity enhance whistleblowing intentions, indicating how perceived context and situation play a role in whistleblowing. The dimensions of moral intensity represent assessments of situational characteristics (i.e., contextual factors, decision attributes, outcomes assessments, victim impact, etc.) that are known to enhance ethical reasoning. For example, when wrongdoing is concentrated on a few victims (or concentration of effect) an employee should be more motivated to blow the whistle due to the unethical conduct harming a small cohort more intensely. Similarly, if an employee believes that an unethical act would be considered inappropriate by many referent others (or social consensus), then he or she would be more inclined to blow the whistle based on established ethical norms in the immediate social context.

After controlling for the effects of respondent age, sex, and social desirability, hierarchical regressions indicate that components of moral intensity (primarily seriousness of harm and social consensus) are positively related to different steps of ethical reasoning. Whistleblowing intention is also positively related to steps of ethical reasoning and seriousness of harm. Companies should train employees to recognize moral intensity in order to enhance their ethical decision making and whistleblowing intentions. Employers should also take proactive steps such as drafting ethics codes, developing ethics training (and other programs), and creating whistleblowing and reporting policies to augment individual ethical reasoning and encourage greater reporting of misconduct.

References

Jones, T. (1991). Ethical decision making by individuals in organizations: An issue-contingent model. Academy of Management Review, 16(2), pp. 366–395.  

Near, J. P. and Miceli, M. P. (1985). Organizational dissidence: The case of whistle-blowing.  Journal of Business Ethics, 4(1), pp. 1–16.  

Rest, J. R. (1986). Moral development: Advances in research and theory. New York: Praeger.  

Robin, D. P., Reidenbach, R. E., and Forrest, P. J. (1996).  The perceived importance of an

ethical issue as an influence on the ethical decision-making of ad managers. Journal of Business Research, 35, pp. 17-28.  

Watts, L. L. and Buckley, M. R. (forthcoming). A dual-processing model of moral

whistleblowing in organizations. Journal of Business Ethics, DOI 10.1007/s10551-015-2913-9 Retrieved from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-015-2913-9.