The Effect of a Leader’s Emotional Intelligence on the Subordinate’s Intention to Whistleblow

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Abstract

While others’ emotions have been demonstrated to influence a decision maker’s judgments in various accounting contexts, the role of their ability to recognize, use, understand, and manage emotions is underexplored. This study examines the effect of a leader’s emotional intelligence on the subordinate’s intention to whistleblow at two levels of leader group prototypicality. The results indicate that a subordinate is more likely to whistleblow when the leader displays high emotional intelligence or group prototypicality. The relationship between the leader’s emotional intelligence and the subordinate’s intention to whistleblow is stronger when the leader has high group prototypicality and is positively mediated by the subordinate’s perceived leader-member exchange, trust in the leader, and job satisfaction. Moreover, these mediations are stronger when the leader’s group prototypicality is high. Contrary to the findings of some previous studies, there is no significant difference with respect to the effect of financial statement fraud and asset misappropriation fraud on the subordinate’s intention to whistleblow. This study has important implications for both academia and practice.

Author

• Xin Geng, Berry College