Bridging the Chasm Between Intentions and Behaviors: Developing and Testing a Construal Level Theory of Internal Whistle-Blowing

Abhijeet K. Vadera (), Ann E. Tenbrunsel () and Kristina A. Diekmann ()
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Abhijeet K. Vadera: Lee Kong Chian School of Business, Singapore Management University, Singapore 177889
Ann E. Tenbrunsel: Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana 46556
Kristina A. Diekmann: David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah 84112

Organization Science, 2025, vol. 36, issue 1, 261-287

Abstract: The recent wave of corporate scandals has necessitated a more systematic investigation of internal whistle-blowing as a potential way to prevent wrongdoing. Our understanding of whistle-blowing, however, has been hampered by a deep chasm that exists between employees’ intent to blow the whistle and their whistle-blowing behaviors. We argue that to fully bridge this gap, we need to consider employees’ cognitive states at the time of whistle-blowing intentions versus behaviors and to link these cognitive states to the ethical systems within the organization’s ethical infrastructure to understand which systems are more effective in cultivating whistle-blowing intentions and which systems help translate those intentions into behaviors. Across one multisource field study and one multiwave experiment, we found support for our arguments that top management values-based communication systems, which are more high construal (abstract), affect whistle-blowing intentions whereas ethical accountability systems and ethical retaliatory systems, which are more low construal (concrete), moderate the relationship between whistle-blowing intentions and behaviors. By linking ethical systems within the organization’s ethical infrastructure to the two stages (intentions and behaviors) of the whistle-blowing process and the accompanying cognitive states, we develop and empirically test a construal level theory of internal whistle-blowing.

Keywords: whistle-blowing intentions; whistle-blowing behaviors; ethical infrastructure; construal fit; construal level theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:36:y:2025:i:1:p:261-287

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