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An International Comparison of the Incidence of Public Sector Whistle‐Blowing and the Prediction of Retaliation: Australia, Norway, and the US
Author(s) -
Miceli Marcia P.,
Near Janet P.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
australian journal of public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-8500
pISSN - 0313-6647
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8500.12040
Subject(s) - wrongdoing , whistle blowing , public sector , government (linguistics) , scale (ratio) , international comparisons , demographic economics , business , political science , economics , public relations , law , geography , economic growth , philosophy , linguistics , cartography
We compare results of several large‐scale survey studies of whistle‐blowing by public sector employees, from samples in Australia, Norway, and the United States. Specifically, we review incidence rates of wrongdoing, whistle‐blowing and retaliation, as perceived by thousands of respondents employed by many government agencies in these countries. Despite differences in measurement in the studies and variation in results, findings suggest that wrongdoing was quite frequently observed and was reported in many cases. Retaliation resulted for far fewer than half of the whistle‐blowers, in all three nations. We also compare findings from the various studies concerning variables that predicted retaliation against whistle‐blowers in the different samples. Differences in results across the three countries add to existing evidence that country and workplace cultures can affect the whistle‐blowing process .