The Effects of Interpersonal Closeness and Issue Seriousness on Blowing the Whistle

This study used registered nurses to examine if relational closeness and issue seriousness affected the likelihood of reporting a wrongdoing. Results from the study were as predicted. More wide ranging revelations found that regardless of the closeness factor and severity of the wrongdoing, respondents would follow the proper chain of command in reporting a wrongdoing. In this organizational setting (that is, a hospital), use of internal channels for whistleblowing (versus external channels) seems to be encouraged by variables other than those found to be important in research with different samples from different types of organi-zations. Studies examining whistleblowers ’ behavior are growing in orga-IJ nizational behavior research. Past studies have found personal characteristics (Miceli & Near, 1984, 1988; Miceli, Roach, & Near, 1988) and organizational variables (Miceli & Near, 1991) as factors that may contribute to whistleblowing. Other researchers (Greenberger, Miceli, & Cohen, 1987) have indicated that group conformity may impede the