Relationships among value congruence, perceived victimization, and retaliation against whistle-blowers

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Abstract
Previous research on organizational members who report perceived wrongdoing has been conducted primarily in public sector organizations. The present study examined survey data from directors of internal auditing in a variety of North American organizations. Because retaliation occurred infrequently, data were analyzed with the case-control method, which is relatively unknown in the organizational literature but is frequently used in medical research to examine the occurrence of rare diseases. Managerial retaliation was more likely when: (1) the whistle-blower perceived that stopping the wrongdoing would harm the organization; (2) the wrongdoing harmed the organization's climate or culture; (3) the whistle-blower tried unsuccessfully to remain anonymous, when the wrongdoing continued; (4) the wrongdoing harmed the public; and (5) low value congruence existed between whistle-blowers and their organizations.