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Whistleblowing as Planned Behavior – A Survey of South Korean Police Officers

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Abstract

This article explores the relevance of the Theory of Planned Behavior to whistleblowing research, and considers whether its widely tested validity as a model of the link between attitudes, intention, and behavior might make it an appropriate candidate for a general theory to account for whistleblowing. This proposition is developed through an empirical test of the theory’s predictive validity for whistleblowing intentions. Using a sample of 296 Korean police officers, the analysis showed that attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control all had significantly positive main effects on internal whistleblowing intentions, but for external whistleblowing intentions only subjective norm was significant. The implications of these findings for applying the Theory of Planned Behavior to whistleblowing research are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Political Science & Economics, Chung-Ang University, 221, Heukseok-dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, 156-756, Korea

    Heungsik Park

  2. Teesside Business School, University of Teesside, Middlesbrough, TS1 3BA, U.K.

    John Blenkinsopp

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  1. Heungsik Park
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  2. John Blenkinsopp
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Correspondence to John Blenkinsopp.

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Park, H., Blenkinsopp, J. Whistleblowing as Planned Behavior – A Survey of South Korean Police Officers. J Bus Ethics 85, 545–556 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-008-9788-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-008-9788-y

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