Anjeela Khurram soutient sa thèse le 13 avril 2021 à 14h, à la faculté Jean Monnet à Sceaux. Elle s’intitule “The Antecedents of Whistleblowing at Individual Level: A Predictive Integrative Framework” et a été réalisée sous la direction de Sandra Charreire Petit.
Composition du Jury:
Hervé LAROCHE Professeur DR, ESCP Business School – Rapporteur
Sandrine HOLLET HAUDEBERT Professeure des Universités, Université de Toulon -IAE – Rapporteure
Emilie HENNEQUIN Maître de Conférences HDR, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne – Examinatrice
Isabelle VANDANGEON DERUMEZ Professeure des Universités,Université d’Evry Val d’Essonne – Examinatrice
Sandra CHARREIRE PETIT Professeure des Universités, Université Paris-Saclay – Directrice de thèse
Abstract: The formidable loss incurred by the organizational malpractices in world venerated organizations has drawn the urgency to find the measures to curb theses malpractices. Among various measures, whistleblowing has been considered as an effective preventive and corrective tool. Given consideration to the bulk of significance granted to whistleblowing for safeguarding the strategic, financial, and legal interests of organizations, it becomes imperative to admit the importance of whistleblowers who jeopardize their careers, financial and social gains for social betterment. Admittedly, the significant role of whistleblowers in disclosing and preventing organizational wrongdoings to avoid potential catastrophes and dramatic accidents has been acknowledged in research and corporate world. In this dissertation, mirroring the positive facet of whistleblowing, it is worth discussing the characteristics of whistleblowers at their individual level that give them the Guardian, Saviors and moral saints like images in public. A common observation is that though various employees witness the organizational wrongdoings, yet only few employees (whistleblowers) report them, while all others remain passive (silent observers). This observation leads towards the central research question of the thesis. Consideringthe three levels of examination of individual characteristics, the main research question has been broken down into three essays of the thesis to study the effects on whistleblowing intentions—internal and external. This three-essays-one-thesis approach facilitates in developing and testing conceptual frameworks at three levels. The first essay explores how the type of mindset of individuals may affect their whistleblowing intention. The second essay shows that how individual level of stewardship and proactive behaviors can affect their whistleblowing intentions. While the third essay investigate the effect of four non-cognitive traits—grit, political skills, self-monitoring and emotional intelligence—on whistleblowing intentions.Besides, I have also integrated the moderating role of perceived organizational support (a contextual factor) on the causal relationships in three essays to get a pertinent set of predictors of whistleblowing intentions. Literature review suggests that research model examining the effect of the predictors of potential internal or external whistleblowing intentions like mindsets, proactive and stewardship behaviors and non-cognitive traits is virtually non-existent, notably in the context of a developing country like Pakistan. This thesis, thus, abridges this research gap. The integrated variables of the thesis do not necessarily make an exhaustive list, nor is this viable. But their examination helps in better understanding of the underlying factors affecting the whistleblowing intentions. To test the hypotheses, a mixed method research design using an explanatory sequential approach has been employed. The quantitative data through self-administered surveys have been collected from the students and faculty members of seven universities in Islamabad, Pakistan. 467 complete questionnaires out of 650 show 71.84% response rate. Applying SEM approach using SPSS and AMOS yield quantitative results. Qualitative data have been collected from two focus group discussions. The thematic approach yields qualitative results. Findings of quantitative and qualitative data have been integrated in discussion chapter using weaving approach. This thesis makes various methodological and theoretical contributions with academic, managerial, policy and scholarly orientated implications. One key contribution of the thesis is that it extends the whistleblowing research to Pakistani context, where the malpractices can readily get diffused. To curb this evil, recently Pakistan governmenthas implemented Whistleblowing Act 2017 as one of the effective preventative measures to curtail the persistent high level of corruption in Pakistan. Thus this thesis aims to be milestone in better understanding the characteristics of potential whistleblowers by providing normative guidance to both practitioners and policy-makers in Pakistan. The limitations of this thesis open up avenues for future research to explore the unanswered aspects