Predicting whistleblowing intention : the role of work locus of control, fear of retaliation, and organizational commitment

Odri, Talia (author), Volarov, Marija (author), Popov, Boris (author), Matanović, Jelena (author)

Whistleblowing is the process by which employees report observed irregularities within the organization. Irregularities can be reported internally using reporting mechanisms within the organization or externally by contacting appropriate authorities or the media. This study explored the role that internal and external work locus of control, fear of retaliation, and organizational commitment play in reporting irregularities in the workplace among employees in Serbia. The Prosocial Organizational Behavior Model was used as the theoretical foundation. The convenience sample of 220 adults (Mage = 40.77 ± 12.87; 65.9% women) was recruited from the general population. First, we tested whether employees are more likely to report irregularities internally than externally. Then, we tested whether we could predict internal and external whistleblowing intention based on internal and external work locus of control, fear of retaliation, and organizational commitment after controlling for demographic variables. Our analysis revealed that internal whistleblowing intention is more pronounced than external one. After accounting for the demographic variables, we also found that internal work locus of control and organizational commitment positively predict internal whistleblowing intention, while fear of retaliation negatively. Finally, we found that fear of retaliation and internal locus of control predict external whistleblowing intention positively after controlling for demographic variables. One possible implication of this study is that increasing organizational commitment, fostering an internal locus of control, and ensuring employee safety may encourage whistleblowing; however, the direction of influence may be reversed, or the third variable that we did not include in our study may play a role.

• Language: English
• Keywords: whistleblowing, locus of control, fear of retaliation, reporting wrongdoing, irregularities in the workplace, industrial and organizational psychology, retaliation, fear, organizational commitment
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FF - Faculty of Arts
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 547-574
• Numbering: Vol. 18, no. 4
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-176876
• UDC: 159.9:331.109
• ISSN on article: 2334-7287
• DOI: 10.19090/pp.v18i4.2596
• COBISS.SI-ID: 261156611
• Publication date in RUL: 12.12.2025

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Primenjena psihologija
• Shortened title: Primenj. psihol.
• Publisher: Filozofski fakultet, Katedra za psihologiju
• ISSN: 2334-7287
• COBISS.SI-ID: 68337155

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: organizacijska psihologija, žvižganje, lokus kontrole, maščevanje, strah, organizacijska pripadnost