Washington, Dec 8 (IANS) An employee who deeply cares for his company is likely to blow the whistle of any wrongdoing at the workplace compared to a person who is not emotionally linked to the firm, an Indian-American researcher says.
Abhijeet Vadera, a doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois, said that tapping into employees’ emotions can lead to exposure of wrongdoing like petty theft, embezzlement and sexual misconduct.

“It’s very difficult to encourage people to blow the whistle if you ignore the role of emotions and personal identity, which most company policies do at this point,” said Vadera, who co-authored the study with professor Ruth V. Aguilera and former professor Brianna Caza.

Vadera interviewed 1,500 employees at a cement manufacturing plant, according to a university statement.

Training sessions build a connection between workers and the company and can encourage whistle blowing, said Aguilera.

“If I care deeply about my company, I’m more inclined to defend it and blow the whistle on wrongdoing. If my job is just a paycheck, I’m more inclined to just say ‘whatever’ if I see something wrong,” she said.

“When I interviewed whistle-blowers, almost all of them cried during the interview. The survey showed that people mostly blow the whistle because they are absolutely angry over something they feel is unfair or unjust.”

These findings are slated for publication in Business Ethics Quarterly.

Vadera did his Post Graduate Programme in Management from the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, and Bachelors of Engineering (Civil) from the University of Mumbai.