Stakeholders’ Attributions of Whistleblowers: The Effects of Complicity and Motives on Perceptions of Likeability, Credibility, and Legitimacy
Autor: | Brian K. Richardson, Johny T. Garner |
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Rok vydání: | 2019 |
Předmět: |
media_common.quotation_subject
05 social sciences Economics Econometrics and Finance (miscellaneous) Street crime 050801 communication & media studies Criminology 0508 media and communications Wrongdoing Perception 0502 economics and business Credibility Business Management and Accounting (miscellaneous) Complicity Psychology Attribution 050203 business & management Legitimacy media_common |
Zdroj: | International Journal of Business Communication. 59:334-354 |
ISSN: | 2329-4892 2329-4884 |
DOI: | 10.1177/2329488419863096 |
Popis: | Organizational wrongdoing remains a persistent, prevalent problem, one that leads to exponentially more injuries, deaths, and cost than street crime in the United States each year. Whistleblowing has become one of the primary ways in which wrongdoing is exposed and investigated, but without support from key stakeholders, whistleblowing may not affect constructive change. This study used an attribution theory framework to explore relationships between stakeholders’ perceptions of different types of whistleblowers. Specifically, we varied whistleblowers’ motives (altruistic and selfish) and involvement in wrongdoing (complicit or innocence) to test their effects on stakeholders’ intentions to ostracize the whistleblower and their perceptions of the whistleblower’s likeability, legitimacy, and three dimensions of credibility (goodwill, trustworthiness, and competence). Respondents were composed of two stakeholder groups, fraternity and sorority members and university alumni. Results indicate that both stakeholder groups found the innocent whistleblower more likeable and credible than the complicit whistleblower, while the fraternity/sorority respondents found the altruistic whistleblowers more likeable, credible, and legitimate, than their selfish counterparts. The article concludes with implications of the findings for whistleblowers, and limitations and directions for future research. |
Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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