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Perceived organizational climate and whistleblowing intention in academic organizations: evidence from Selçuk University (Turkey)

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Abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between organizational climate drivers and whistleblowing intention through a cross-sectional study in Selçuk University in Turkey. Contrary to our expectations, the findings do not fully support the existing literature and the hypotheses underpinning this research. While the work environment in faculties and institutes of Selçuk University seems to portray an overall positive organizational climate, lecturers, researchers, and research assistants have expressed a deep reluctance in the likelihood to sound the alarm in case they witness wrongdoings and malpractices committed by their supervisors and fellow colleagues. The investigation reveals that some organizational climate drivers such as organizational justice, morale, leader credibility and mobbing are consistently associated with informal whistleblowing intention while only individual autonomy is bound with formal whistleblowing intention. Nevertheless, the outputs highlight individual autonomy and morale to have negative impact on whistleblowing intention which is opposite to our expectation. Furthermore, the findings do not support the assumption relating to the mediating role of trust and safety climate in the relationship between organizational climate drivers and whistleblowing intention.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Business Administration Department, Selçuk Üniversitesi, Konya, Turkey

    Codjori Edwige Iko Afe

  2. School of Management, University Laval, 2325 Rue de Terrasse, Québec, G1V 0A6, Canada

    Alexis Abodohoui

  3. Business Administration Department, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey

    T. Guy Crescent Mebounou

  4. Department of Management, Pavillon Palasis Prince, Université Laval/University Laval, 2325 rue de la Terrasse, Québec, QC, G1V 0A6, Canada

    Egide Karuranga

  5. University of Parakou, Parakou, Benin

    Alexis Abodohoui

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  1. Codjori Edwige Iko Afe
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  2. Alexis Abodohoui
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  3. T. Guy Crescent Mebounou
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  4. Egide Karuranga
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Correspondence to Alexis Abodohoui.

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Iko Afe, C.E., Abodohoui, A., Mebounou, T.G.C. et al. Perceived organizational climate and whistleblowing intention in academic organizations: evidence from Selçuk University (Turkey). Eurasian Bus Rev 9, 299–318 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40821-018-0110-3

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