Do Good Workplace Relationships Encourage Employee Whistle-Blowing?

Abstract

The literature contains mixed arguments and evidence regarding how employee willingness to blow the whistle is affected by interpersonal relationships in organizations. This article examines whether there is a curvilinear relationship between interpersonal relationships and whistle-blowing intentions, by operationalizing interpersonal relationships with the person-group fit and person-supervisor fit variables. By using the 2015 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey data, this article finds that the curvilinear relationship does exist: when the person-group fit and person-supervisor fit become very high, the intention to blow the whistle dwindles. As a result, this article argues that the impacts of workplace relationships on whistle-blowing intention would not be simply linear, but curvilinear.

Keywords:

• Interpersonal relationship
• person-environment fit
• whistle-blowing intention

Notes

This research has been funded by the Chinese Social Science Foundation Project, Research on the Modernization Indicators of Governance System and Capacity, 17VZL003.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tae Kyu Wang

Tae Kyu Wang, Department of Social Welfare, Catholic Kwandong University.

Kai-Jo Fu

Kai-Jo Fu, Department of Public Administration, National Chengchi University.

Kaifeng Yang

Kaifeng Yang, Renmin University of China & Askew School of Public Administration and Policy, Florida State University.