Michael T. Rehg

Antecedents and Outcomes of Retaliation Against Whistleblowers: Gender Differences and Power Relationships

Whistle-blowing represents an influence attempt in which organization member(s) try to persuade other members to cease wrongdoing; sometimes they fail; sometimes they succeed; sometimes they suffer reprisal. We investigated whether women experienced more retaliation than men, testing propositions derived from theories about gender differences and power variables, and using data from military and civilian employees of a large U.S. base. Being female was correlated with perceived retaliation. Results of structural equation modeling showed significant gender differences in antecedents and outcomes of retaliation. For men, lack of support from others and low whistleblowers power were significantly related to retaliation; for women, lack of support from others, serious wrongdoing, and the wrongdoings direct effect on the whistleblower were significantly associated with retaliation. Retaliation in turn was negatively related to relationships with the supervisor for both men and women, and positively related to womens---but not mens---decisions to blow the whistle again, using external channels. We finish by discussing implications for theory and practice.

Can Laws Protect Whistle-Blowers? Results of a Naturally Occurring Field Experiment

Data collected over three time periods, from 1980 to 1992, show massive changes in the ways in which federal employees reported wrongdoing and the effects on them for having done so. Laws intended to encourage whistle-blowing seem to have two desired effects: to reduce the incidence of perceived wrongdoing and to increase the likelihood of whistle-blowing. However, two unintended effects are also observed: perceived retaliation increased and whistle-blowers increasingly sought anonymity. The basic model predicting retaliation is essentially the same in the three time periods in which data were collected. Implications for research, practice, and the design of future legislation are discussed.

Predicting employee reactions to perceived organizational wrongdoing: Demoralization, justice, proactive personality, and whistle-blowing

News reports of organizational wrongdoing often pique interest in the question of how to encourage employees to report it. We used data from a survey of more than 3000 organizational members in the US to test a model of whistle-blowing. As predicted, observation of wrongdoing generally was associated with lower perceived organizational support and lower perceived justice of reporting channels (both procedural justice and distributive justice), suggesting that tolerating wrongdoing has negative effects for the organization itself, but there was also evidence that correcting wrongdoing may be nearly as positive as preventing it. Three previously untested variables – proactive personality, less co-worker invalidation, and leverage in the specific situation – predicted whistle-blowing, as did strength of evidence, a variable for which prior findings were inconsistent. Gender also was related to whistle-blowing. Finally, the predictors of blowing the whistle exclusively to one’s supervisor were similar to those of using other channels. Implications for theory, research, and practice are described.

Examining the influence of cross‐cultural training on cultural intelligence and specific self‐efficacy

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between cultural intelligence (CQ) and specific self‐efficacy (SSE), and the effect of training on CQ and SSE.Design/methodology/approach – Pre and post‐test surveys were administered to 110 US government contracting trainees, in four separate training settings, to measure the effects of training on mean CQ and SSE scores. Two administrations included pre and post‐test surveys. One was designed as a post‐test only, while the fourth was taken from 25 contracting officers in a recurring training setting. Statistical analyses were performed through the use of t‐tests to measure the significance of the change in means across training classes.Findings – It was found that training using a lecture format significantly improved mean levels of CQ on the cognitive and behavioral dimensions, while less significantly improving motivational CQ. SSE scores from pre‐ to post‐training were also only marginally improved. An additional finding showed signif...

Quality assurance staffing impacts in military aircraft maintenance units

Purpose – This paper summarizes our research into the impact that current Air Force quality assurance staffing practices have on key unit performance metrics.Design/methodology/approach – Interviews and Delphi surveys culminated in the development of a quality assurance staffing effectiveness matrix. The matrix was used to calculate historical quality assurance staffing effectiveness at 16 Air Force combat aircraft units. Effectiveness scores were then regressed with unit historical data for 25 metrics.Findings – Nine metrics were deemed statistically significant, including break rates, cannibalization rates, flying schedule effectiveness rates, key task list pass rates, maintenance scheduling effectiveness rates, quality verification inspection pass rates, repeat rates, dropped objects counts and safety/technical violations counts. An example benefit‐cost analysis for changes in quality assurance staffing effectiveness presents compelling evidence for maintenance managers to carefully weigh decisions to ...