Compliance with Internal Disclosure Policies: A Preliminary Study

• In Event: Accounting Behavior and Organizations/ Gender Issues and Work-Life Balance

Abstract

Organizations implement policies and communication channels to promote employee’s reporting of wrongdoings that they witness. Despite attempts by management to implement policies to address reporting requirements, employees are hesitant to report wrongdoings. This is a pilot study using convenience data to examine a model of employee’s intention to comply with internal disclosure policies also termed whistle-blower policies. The results of this study suggests that one of the major factors influencing the employee’s intention to comply with the internal disclosure policies is their perception that they may experience negative consequences as a result of reporting the wrongdoing. In addition, the employee’s perception of benefits due to compliance with internal disclosure policies is also negatively related to the employee’s attitude toward compliance. The findings also show that the compliance expectation of others has a positive relationship with the employee’s intention to comply.

Author

• Randall Young, The University of Texas–Pan American