The Effects of Organizations’ Use of Pronouns in Whistleblowing Policies on Reporting Intentions

• In Event: 1.04 Ethics in Decision Making

Abstract

In this study, we conducted two experiments to test whether using different types of pronouns in a company’s internal whistleblowing policy can influence employees’ reporting intentions. We classified companies’ internal whistleblowing policies into two categories: Reporting Policy and Anti-retaliation Policy. In our first experiment, we manipulated first-person and third-person pronoun usage in the Reporting Policy and Anti-retaliation Policy. We found that for the Reporting Policy, first-person pronouns are more effective than third-person pronouns in improving employees’ reporting intentions; for the Anti-retaliation Policy, third-person pronouns are more effective than first-person pronouns. In our second experiment, we combined the Reporting Policy and the Anti-retaliation Policy with a 2 x 2 between subjects experiment. Results of the second experiment indicate that when the Reporting Policy is combined with the Anti-retaliation Policy, participants focus primarily on the Reporting Policy rather than the Anti-retaliation Policy. Within the Reporting Policy, we find that first-person pronouns are more effective than third-person pronouns. We find no pronoun effect for the Anti-retaliation Policy. Implications are discussed in the paper.

Authors

• Lei Gao, University of Akron

• Alisa Gabrielle Brink, Virginia Commonwealth University

• Christopher Kevin Eller, Appalachian State University