RT Article
T1 Whistleblowing in family firms: power and justice dynamics
JF Journal of business ethics
VO 198
IS 4
SP 771
OP 786
A1 Lafleur, Clarisse
A1 Hasso, Tim
A1 Barbera, Francesco
A2 Hasso, Tim
A2 Barbera, Francesco
LA English
YR 2025
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1925604764
AB We explore how power and justice dynamics influence whistleblowing behaviour in family firms, focusing on the under-explored construct of connection power. Power and justice are two important, interrelated forces strongly affecting moral behaviour. We hypothesise a moderated moderation model and use a 2 × 2x2 between-subject experiment with 331 participants to test our conceptual model. We find that the family relation (i.e., connection power) of the wrongdoer changes what we know about the relationship between the legitimate power of the observer and whistleblowing likelihood, and that, in some instances, observers with high legitimate power are even less likely to blow the whistle than those with low legitimate power. Our exploration further reveals that, although the family relation of the wrongdoer discourages would-be whistleblowers, even those with legitimate power, organisational justice consistently increases the likelihood of whistleblowing in every case.
K1 Business Ethics
K1 Connection power
K1 Energy Justice
K1 Family firms
K1 Legitimate power
K1 Organisational justice
K1 Organizational Psychology
K1 Power Motivation
K1 Power law
K1 Whistleblowing
K1 Work and Organizational Psychology
K1 Aufsatz in Zeitschrift
DO 10.1007/s10551-025-05937-7