Mediating Role of Security Measures in Developing the Attitude towards Whistle blowing among Faculty Members in Public Sector Universities

Abstract

This article aimed to examine the attitude of the university faculty towards whistle-blowing in public sector universities in Punjab, Pakistan. Further, to investigate the direct and indirect effect of perceived behavioral control (PBC), Organizational Ethical Culture (OEC) and colleagues’ support (CS) mediating through job security measures (SM) on the attitude towards blowing the whistle (AttWB) when there is wrongdoing happens in the university.  The quantitative survey research design was adopted to examine the faculty members’ attitude towards whistle-blowing to report the wrongdoing within an organizational setting. Total 224 participants participated in the current study working as lecturer, assistant professor and associate professors in the three randomly selected public sector universities of Punjab province. Structural equation modeling was used to validate the model of the study. Results showed that the hypothetical model significantly validated and a significant and partial mediation of Job security measures between the effect of PBS, OEC, CS and attitude towards whistle blowing (CMIN/DF = 2.34, GFI = 0.93 & RMSEA = 0.06).  while there is no gender difference found in this mediating role of SC. In the light of the findings, it was recommended that whistle-blowing mechanism, policies and procedures are required to be institutionalized to ensure the job security measures to support the protection of whistle blowers and to improve the transparency process.