Empirical Study on the Attitudes toward Whistle-blowing

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This empirical study examines factors that influence the behavior and attitude to whistle-blowing tendencies. Two surveys were conducted, one before and the other after the enforcement of the Whistle-blower Protection Act started in April 2006. Several experiments were also used to collect data for the analysis of the relationship between the attitudes toward wrongdoing and personal and situational factors. The main results are as follows. (1) Salaried workers consider the need is stronger for protecting whistle-blowers after the law enforcement. However, the attitudes toward other sides of the whistle-blowers did not change significantly. (2) Workers showed positive evaluation of both whistle-blowing and whistle-blower in general, but for those with higher scores of organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and collectivism, this positive evaluation was weaker. (3) For those who were not victims of fraud, the possibility of blowing the whistle was higher. (4) Those who thought that they could get supports from their supervisors or/and families, would likely blow the whistle. This was also true for those that their job description related to the stopping the wrongdoing. (5) 3 words used for addressing whistle-blowers in Japanese language gave similar images of whistle-blowers to both college students and salaried workers, and in general the images were positive. However, whistle-blowers' interpersonal relations were negatively evaluated.