The Silent Samaritan Syndrome: Why the Whistle Remains Unblown

Jason MacGregor () and Martin Stuebs ()

Journal of Business Ethics, 2014, vol. 120, issue 2, 149-164

Abstract: Whistle blowing programs have been central to numerous government, legislative, and regulatory reform efforts in recent years. To protect investors, corporate boards have instituted numerous measures to promote whistle blowing. Despite significant whistle blowing incentives, few individuals blow the whistle when presented with the opportunity. Instead, individuals often remain fallaciously silent and, in essence, become passive fraudsters themselves. Using the fraud triangle and models of moral behavior, we model and analyze fallacious silence and identify factors that may motivate an individual to rationalize fallacious silence. We use a survey of graduate accounting students to test hypothesized factors that contribute to fallacious silence rationalizations in an academic setting. We find evidence that the ability to rationalize fallacious silence is related to community influences and personal traits such as awareness and moral competence. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Keywords: Whistleblowing; Silence; Fraud triangle; Rationalization; Moral competence; Moral behavior; Professional identity; Awareness; Incentives; Community influences (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (18)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:120:y:2014:i:2:p:149-164

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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-013-1639-9

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