Religiosity, Job Status and Whistle-Blowing: Evidence from Micro-Finance Companies
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18533/ijbsr.v6i2.916Keywords:
Job status, micro-finance companies, religiosity, whistle-blowing.Abstract
We investigate the effect of religiosity and job status on whistle-blowing among employees of micro finance companies in Ga-East district of Ghana. The intellectual dimension of religiosity informs and produces high sense of morality in an individual thus influencing whistle-blowing. Additionally, religion create the platform for building belief in certain rules and regulations as right or as wrong. Using quantitative approach for analyzing the effect between independent variables (job status and religiosity) on the dependent variable (whistle-blowing), we show that though religiosity and job status can influence whistle-blowing, however in this study, the magnitude is negligible and perhaps other variables in concert with religiosity and job status may influence whistle-blowing activities in an organization. We conclude that that whistleblowing generally in the Ghanaian setting is yet to receive high prominence due to the general belief of lack of protection for persons who come out to expose wrongdoings and the general fear of harassment, victimization and loss of job by the whistle-blower.
References
Ahmad, S., Smith, G. M., & Ismail, Z. (2012). Internal Whistle-Blowing Intentions: A Study of Demographic and Individual Factors. Journal of Modern Accounting and Auditing, 8(11), 1632-1645
Alford, C. F. (2003). Civil Society and its Discontents. The Good Society, 12(1), 11-16
Alford, C. F. (2007). Whistle-blower narratives: The experience of choice-less choice. Social Research: An International Quarterly of Social Sciences, 74(1), 223-248.
Allport, G. W. & Ross, J. M. (1967). Personal religious orientation and prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5, 447-457
Auriacombe, C. J. (2005). What happens when one blows the whistle? Recent South African cases. Sabinet online, 24(1), 85-100. Retrieved September 5, 2007, from the World Wide Web: http://www.subinet.co.za/abstracts/polit/polit_v24_n1_95_htm.
Betancourt, H. & Blair, I. (1992). A cognition (attribution)-emotion model of violence in conflict situations. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 18(3), 343-350.
Bhatia, S. (2012). The Effects of Job Title and Minority Status on Perceptions of Whistle Blowing in the Workplace. University of Florida
Bowen, R. M., Call, A. C. & Rajgopal, S. (2010). Whistleblowing: Target firm characteristics and economic consequences. The Accounting Review, 85(4), 1239-1271.
Brian, D. (2001). The Future of Organization Ethics in Africa. IBER 4(1). Retrieved September 5, 2007, from the World Wide Web: http://www.organization-ethics.org/newdetail.asp?news1d=20-27k
Brief, A. P. & Motowidlo, S. J. (1986). Prosocial organizational behaviors. The Academy of Management Review, 11(4), 710-725.
Camerer, L. (1996). Ethics and the Professions: Blowing the Whistle on Crime. African security review, 5(6), 48-54
Chu, D. (2007). Religiosity and desistance from drug use. Criminal Justice and Behaviour, 34,661-679.
Dellaportas, S., Gibson, K., Alagiah, R., Hutchinson, M., Leung, P., & Van Homrigh, D. (2005). Ethics, governance and accountability: A professional perspective. Australia: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Donahue M. J. & Benson, P. L. (1995). Religion and the well-being of adolescent. Journal of Social Issue. 51,145-160
Dozier, J. B. & Miceli, M. P. (1985) “Potential predictors of whistle-blowing: A prosocialBehavior perspective”. Academy of Management Review, 10, 823-836.
Dworkin, T. & Baucus, M. S. (1998). “Internal vs. External Whistleblowers: A Comparison of Whistle-blowing Process” Journal of Business Ethics (17). 1281-1298
Dyck, A., Adair, M., & Zingales, L. (2010). Who blows the whistle on corporate fraud? Journal of Finance, 65, 2213-2254
Ellison C.G. (1991). Religious involvement and subjective well-being. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 32, 80-99.
Fukuyama, M., & Sevig, T. (1999). Integrating Spirituality into Multicultural Counselling. Sage Publications
Green, S. B. (1991). How many subjects does it take to do a regression analysis? Multivariate Behavioral Research, 26, 499-510
Greenberg, J. & Baron, R.A (2003). Behaviour in Organizations (Eight edition). Prentice Hall: New Jersey
Johnson, R. A. (2003). Whistleblowing: When it works and why, Boulder, CO: Lynne Riener Publishers
Keenan, J.P. (2000). Blowing the whistle on less serious forms of fraud: A study of executives and managers. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 12(4), 85-94
Lacayo, R., & Ripley, A. (2003). Persons of the year. Time, 38-39.
Larson, D.B., Sherill, K.A., Lyons, J.S., Craigie, F.C., Thielman, S.B., Greenwold. M.A., & Larson, S.S. (1992). Association between dimensions of religious commitment and mental health. American Journal of Psychiatry, 149, 557-559.
Latane, B., & Darley, J. (1969). “Bystander "Apathy", American Scientist, 57, 244-268.
Lee, J. Y., Heilmann, S.G., & Near, J.P. (2004). Blowing the whistle on sexual harassment: Test of a model of predictors and outcomes. Human relations, 57(3), 297-322
Levin, S. & Sidanius, J. (1999). “Social dominance and social identity in the United States and Israel: In-group favoritism or out-group derogation?” Political Psychology, 20, 99-126.
Martin E. D. (2013). Whistleblowing, religiosity, spirituality and integrity: Understanding the impact of Social Dominance Orientation and Environmental Context.” Journal of Moral Organizational Psychology. 2 (3)
Mesmer-Magnus, J. R. & Viswesvaran, C. (2005). Whistleblowing in organizations: Examination of correlates of whistleblowing intentions, actions, and retaliation. Journal of Business Ethics, 62(3), 277-297.
Miceli, M. P. & Near, J. P. (1985). Characteristics of organizational climate and perceived wrongdoing associated with whistleblowing decisions. Personnel Psychology, 38(3), 525-544
Miceli, M., Near, J., Rehg, M. & Scotter, J. (2008). Antecedents and Outcomes of Retaliation Against Whistleblowers: Gender Differences and Power Relationships. Organization Science, 19(2), 221-240.
Miceli, M.P, & Near, J.P. (1988). Individual and Situational Correlates of Whistle-blowing. Personnel Psychology, 41(2), 267-281.
Morgan, (2004). Dealing with Religious Expression in the Workplace. Retrieved June 22, 2006 from www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=900005466111
Near, J.P., & Miceli, M.P. (1995). Effective whistle-blowing. The Academy of Management Review, 20(3), 679-708
Othman, R. & Hariri, H. (2012). Conceptualizing religiosity influence on whistle-blowing intentions. British Journal of Economics, Finance and Management Sciences, 6(1), 62-92
Plante, T.G. & Boccaccini, M. (1997). The Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire. Pastoral Psychology, 45, 375-387
Pratto, F., Sidanius, J., Stallworth, L., & Malle, B. (1994) “Social Dominance Orientation: A Personality Variable Predicting Social and Political Attitudes”, Journal of Personality And Social Psychology, 67(4), 741-763.
Rossouw, D. (2002). Organization ethics in Africa. (2nd Ed.). Cape Town: Oxford University Press.
Sangweni, S. (2005). Parliamentary briefing on the 2005 Annual state of the Public service Report. Retrieved September 17, 2007, from the World Wide Web: http://www..pmg.org.za/briefings/briefings.php?id=185.
Schminke, M., Ambrose, M. L. & Miles, J. A. (2003). The impact of gender and setting on perceptions of others’ ethics. Sex Roles, 48(7/8), 361-375.
Sekeran, (2003). Research method for business: A skill building approach 4th edition, John Wiley & Sons.
Sims, R. & Keenan, J. (1998). “Predictors of External Whistle-blowing: Organizational and Interpersonal Variables”. Journal of Business Ethics, 17(4), 411-42
Struthers, C.W., Miller, D. L., Boudens, C. J. & Briggs, G. L. (2001). Effects of causal attributions on co-worker interactions: A social motivation perspective. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 23(3), 169-181.
Stylianou, S. (2004). The role of religiosity on the Opposition to Drug Use. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 48(4), 429-448
Tabachnick, B. G. & Fidell, L.S. (1996).Using multivariate statistics (3rd Ed.). New York: Harper-Collins
Taylor, D. & Pillemer, E. (2009). Using affect to understand employee turnover: a context-specific application of a theory of social exchange. Sociological Perspectives 52 (4), 481–504.
Tim Bass & Brown (1996) Religiosity, ethical ideology, and intentions to report a peer's wrongdoing, Journal of Business Ethics, Vol 15, issue 11, pp 1161-1174
Treneman, A. (2004). ‘Why Women do their Duty.’ New Statesman, 17(7), 16.
Vadera, A. K., Vadera, R. V. & Caza, B. B. (2009). Making sense of whistle-blowing antecedents: Learning from research on identity and ethics programs. Business Ethics Quarterly, 19, 553-586.
Vermeir, I., & Van Kenhove, P. (2008). Gender differences in double standards. Journal of Business Ethics, 81(2), 281-295.
Whistleblowers Act of Ghana (Act 720), 2006
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
