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The Silent Samaritan Syndrome: Why the Whistle Remains Unblown

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  • Jason MacGregor
  • Martin Stuebs

Abstract

Whistle blowing programs have been central to numerous government, legislative, and regulatory reform efforts in recent years. To protect investors, corporate boards have instituted numerous measures to promote whistle blowing. Despite significant whistle blowing incentives, few individuals blow the whistle when presented with the opportunity. Instead, individuals often remain fallaciously silent and, in essence, become passive fraudsters themselves. Using the fraud triangle and models of moral behavior, we model and analyze fallacious silence and identify factors that may motivate an individual to rationalize fallacious silence. We use a survey of graduate accounting students to test hypothesized factors that contribute to fallacious silence rationalizations in an academic setting. We find evidence that the ability to rationalize fallacious silence is related to community influences and personal traits such as awareness and moral competence. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

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  • Jason MacGregor & Martin Stuebs, 2014. "The Silent Samaritan Syndrome: Why the Whistle Remains Unblown," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 120(2), pages 149-164, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:120:y:2014:i:2:p:149-164
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-013-1639-9
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    4. Waseem Yousaf & Raheel Jamil, 2020. "Does Moral Intensity Affect the Whistleblowing Intentions?," iRASD Journal of Management, International Research Alliance for Sustainable Development (iRASD), vol. 2(2), pages 84-99, December.
    5. Hengky Latan & Christian M. Ringle & Charbel Jose Chiappetta Jabbour, 2018. "Whistleblowing Intentions Among Public Accountants in Indonesia: Testing for the Moderation Effects," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 152(2), pages 573-588, October.
    6. Nadia Smaili & Paulina Arroyo, 2019. "Categorization of Whistleblowers Using the Whistleblowing Triangle," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(1), pages 95-117, June.
    7. Jawad Khan & Imran Saeed & Muhammad Zada & Amna Ali & Nicolás Contreras-Barraza & Guido Salazar-Sepúlveda & Alejandro Vega-Muñoz, 2022. "Examining Whistleblowing Intention: The Influence of Rationalization on Wrongdoing and Threat of Retaliation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(3), pages 1-20, February.
    8. Hengky Latan & Charbel Jose Chiappetta Jabbour & Ana Beatriz Lopes de Sousa Jabbour, 2021. "Social Media as a Form of Virtual Whistleblowing: Empirical Evidence for Elements of the Diamond Model," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 174(3), pages 529-548, December.
    9. Farrar, Jonathan & Hausserman, Cass & Rennie, Morina, 2019. "The influence of revenge and financial rewards on tax fraud reporting intentions," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 102-116.
    10. Hengky Latan & Charbel Jose Chiappetta Jabbour & Ana Beatriz Lopes de Sousa Jabbour, 2021. "To Blow or Not to Blow the Whistle: The Role of Rationalization in the Perceived Seriousness of Threats and Wrongdoing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 169(3), pages 517-535, March.
    11. Hengky Latan & Charbel Jose Chiappetta Jabbour & Ana Beatriz Lopes de Sousa Jabbour, 2019. "‘Whistleblowing Triangle’: Framework and Empirical Evidence," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(1), pages 189-204, November.
    12. Hengky Latan & Charbel Jose Chiappetta Jabbour & Murad Ali & Ana Beatriz Lopes de Sousa Jabbour & Tan Vo-Thanh, 2023. "What Makes You a Whistleblower? A Multi-Country Field Study on the Determinants of the Intention to Report Wrongdoing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 183(3), pages 885-905, March.
    13. Clarissa Kirschbichler, 2022. "Ethical Leadership And Its Impact On Whistleblowing," Economy & Business Journal, International Scientific Publications, Bulgaria, vol. 16(1), pages 262-272.
    14. Elka Johansson & Peter Carey, 2016. "Detecting Fraud: The Role of the Anonymous Reporting Channel," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 139(2), pages 391-409, December.
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    16. Wim Vandekerckhove & Arron Phillips, 2019. "Whistleblowing as a Protracted Process: A Study of UK Whistleblower Journeys," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 201-219, September.

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