Psychological mechanisms linking ethical climate to employee whistle-blowing intention

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how a perceived ethical climate influences employees’ intention to whistle-blow through internal organizational channels and incorporates the mediating role of organizational identification and moral identity as well as the moderating role of individual risk aversion. Design/methodology/approach The five proposed hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression analysis with two waves of data collected in 2016 from 667 employees in Chinese organizations. Findings The findings indicate that perceived ethical climate had a positive effect on employees’ internal whistle-blowing intention, which was mediated by organizational identification and moral identity. Furthermore, employees’ risk aversion weakened the effect of organizational identification, while the moderating role by moral identity on internal whistle-blowing intention was not validated. Originality/value This study explains the psychological mechanism of whistle-blowing intention from the perspective of social identity, which contributes to opening the “black box” of the transmitting processes from the perceived ethical climate to whistle-blowing intention. This study also extends the literature by defining a boundary condition of risk aversion that hinders organizational identification influence on employee whistle-blowing intention.