The influence of organizational justice on accountant whistleblowing

In this research study, we apply the theory of organizational justice to the design of whistleblowing policies and procedures. As a pro-social behavior, we posit that employee whistleblowing is likely to increase when organizational whistleblowing procedures, outcomes, and related exchanges with sup...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Accounting, organizations and society organizations and society, 2010-10, Vol.35 (7), p.707-717
Main Authors: Seifert, Deborah L., Sweeney, John T., Joireman, Jeff, Thornton, John M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accountants
Accounting
Experiments
Financial reporting
Fraud
Information dissemination
Internal auditors
Justice
Management accountants
Organization theory
Organizational analysis
Organizational justice
Studies
Whistleblowing
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Summary:In this research study, we apply the theory of organizational justice to the design of whistleblowing policies and procedures. As a pro-social behavior, we posit that employee whistleblowing is likely to increase when organizational whistleblowing procedures, outcomes, and related exchanges with superiors are perceived as fair. We test our hypotheses with an experiment involving 447 internal auditors and management accountants. Our results indicate that whistleblowing policies and mechanisms incorporating higher levels of procedural justice, distributive justice, and interactional justice were perceived to increase the likelihood that an organizational accountant would internally report financial statement fraud.
ISSN:0361-3682
1873-6289
DOI:10.1016/j.aos.2010.09.002