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Authentic Leadership and Whistleblowing: Mediating Roles of Psychological Safety and Personal Identification

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Abstract

The issues of organizational wrongdoing damage organizational performance and limit the development of organizations. Although organizational members may know the wrongdoing and have the opportunity to blow the whistle, they would keep silent because of the interpersonal risks. However, leaders can play an important role in shaping employee whistleblowing. This study focuses on discovering the mechanisms of how authentic leaders influence employee whistleblowing with a sample from China. Results demonstrate that authentic leadership is positively related to internal whistleblowing. Team psychological safety partly mediates the relationship between authentic leadership and internal whistleblowing. Personal identification partly mediates the relationship between authentic leadership and internal whistleblowing. The study contributes to the extant theory by filling the gap between leadership and whistleblowing.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the funding of this study by Natural Science Foundation of China–Reference Number 71232001 and 70972016. We are grateful to the help of Bruce J. Avolio who is Professor, Executive Director, Foster School of Business, University of Washington.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Business School, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Jungong Road 516, Shanghai, 200093, China

    Sheng-min Liu

  2. School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Luoyu Road 1037, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Jian-qiao Liao

  3. Department of Organizational Behavior, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH, 44106, USA

    Hongguo Wei

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  1. Sheng-min Liu
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Liu, Sm., Liao, Jq. & Wei, H. Authentic Leadership and Whistleblowing: Mediating Roles of Psychological Safety and Personal Identification. J Bus Ethics 131, 107–119 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2271-z

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