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Predicting proactive behaviour at work: Exploringthe role of personality as an antecedent ofwhistleblowing behaviour
Brita Bjørkelo*, Stale Einarsen and Stig Berge MatthiesenDepartment of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Norway
This paper reports on the role of personality as an antecedent of proactive behaviour atwork in the form of whistleblowing. In the interest of triangulation, two studies wereused, along with two personality measures. The results of Study 1, conducted among503 municipality employees, show that the NEO Five-Factor Inventory dimensions ofextraversion and agreeableness are significantly associated with whistleblowing, withodds ratios of 1.13 and 0.91, respectively. The result from Study 2, conducted among arepresentative sample of employees, shows that the circumplex of interpersonalproblems dimension domineering was significantly associated with whistleblowing, withan odds ratio of 1.66. The results suggest that personality, in the form of highextraversion and dominance and low agreeableness, do play a role as antecedents ofwhistleblowing.
Organizations aim to prosper while producing and delivering high-quality merchandizeand services. One way to achieve this is by recruiting employees who display
characteristics associated with high job performance (Barrick, Stewart, & Piotrowski,
2002; Motowidlo, 2003). It is therefore always of interest to organizations and society to
learn more about how to increase proactivity and initiative at work, while also reducing
passive attitudes and deviant or overly compliant behaviour.
The dynamic between active and passive behaviour is especially evident when it
comes to how employees respond to wrongdoing at work. Whistleblowing is behaviour
that is characterized not only by intent but also by action when employees areconfronted with organizational wrongdoing (Bateman & Crant, 1993). Personality is
assumed to be one reason why some employees are more inclined than others to engage
in whistleblowing behaviour and initiate actions aimed at solving organizational
challenges (Miceli, 2004). If there are differences that characterize whistleblowers, then
they should be recognizable in individual traits. The main objective of the research
presented here is to investigate the role of personality in relation to proactive behaviour
* Correspondence should be addressed to Brita Bjørkelo, Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Christiesgate 12, N-5015 Bergen, Norway (e-mail: [email protected]).
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371
Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology (2010), 83, 371–394
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DOI:10.1348/096317910X486385
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in the form of whistleblowing, employing two standardized measures of personality and
two comprehensive survey studies.
Proactive behaviourProactivity at work is generally characterized by initiative, such as performing a task
without being asked to do so, assertiveness, which can be described as solving a
potential problem by taking charge such as reporting problematic events, and as taking
charge in general (Crant, 2000; Morrison & Phelps, 1999). The notion of proactive
behaviour evolved from the theoretical framework of social interactionism that holds
that ‘behaviour is both internally and externally controlled, and situations are as much a
function of persons as vice versa’ (Bateman & Crant, 1993, p. 104). According to
Bateman and Crant, employees influence their environments in a number of ways,including selecting which situations to participate in, cognitive restructuring of how to
perceive or interpret one’s environment, unintentional evocation, and intentional
efforts to manipulate a situation. In essence, proactive behaviour concerns how
employees, through intent and action, change an existing social or non-social situation
(Bateman & Crant, 1993).
Proactivity, which includes terms such as taking charge (Moon, Kamdar, Mayer,
& Takeuchi, 2008; Morrison & Phelps, 1999), prosocial rule breaking (Morrison,
2006), and voice (LePine & Van Dyne, 1998), can be conceptualized as anticipatoryaction performed by employees in order to effect change on themselves and/or
their environments (Grant & Ashford, 2008). A common feature of this behaviour
is that it shares a focus on ‘addressing or solving problems by stepping outside of
the boundaries of their job’ (Morrison, 2006, p. 8), which is usually described
as extra-role behaviours (Van Dyne, Cummings, & Parks, 1995). However, none of
these proactive behaviours specifically addresses the dynamic between actively
initiating behaviour and passive and negligent behaviour in situations in which
an employee is confronted with wrongdoing at work. Whistleblowing is usuallydefined as ‘the disclosure by organization members (former or current) of illegal,
immoral or illegitimate practices under the control of their employers, to persons or
organizations that may be able to effect action’ (Near & Miceli, 1985, p. 4). Therefore,
in relation to passive versus active behaviour, whistleblowing has a unique position
among proactive behaviours.
Whistleblowing has been specifically linked to the proactive behaviour ‘voice’
(see e.g., Miceli & Near, 1992; Miceli, Near, & Dworkin, 2008). In its original form, the
term ‘voice’ relates to ‘any attempt at all to change, rather than to escape from, anobjectionable state of affairs’ (Hirschman, 1970, p. 30). The proactive notion of ‘voice’
usually distinguishes between two ways employees may attempt to make a change;
actions that are taken to encourage something to happen (promotive ‘voice’), and
actions that encourages some type of practice to stop, which has been labelled
prohibitive ‘voice’ (LePine & Van Dyne, 1998). According to Le Pine and Van Dyne,
whistleblowing may be defined as one form of prohibitive ‘voice’ as it may be perceived
as critical and aimed at terminating wrongdoing. However, as voice in the form of raising
concern about issues that may be improved is essential for organizational democracy(Rank, 2009), whistleblowing may also be promotive, as employees may warn their
leaders of potential harm (Miceli & Near, 1994).
From an organizational point of view, whistleblowing is a proactive behaviour in that
the employee acts based on a sense of moral or justice, and takes steps to terminate
372 Brita Bjørkelo et al.
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wrongdoing, often irrespective of fear of retaliation in a situation where few other
organization members act. Due to the economical and human costs associated with
organizational wrongdoing, such as unethical treatment of personnel, sexual
harassment, and fraud, corporations are dependent on employees that take charge
when most others stay passive (Miceli & Near, 2007; Near & Miceli, 2008). Along these
lines, whistleblowing is a type of proactive behaviour which perhaps is ‘more importantthan ever before’ (Grant & Ashford, 2008, p. 5). Rank (2009) states that ‘uncritical
reliance on habitual routines, usually established by members of the majority, likely
stifles proactivity’ (p. 201). Whistleblowers however, perform proactive behaviour in
that they display self-starting, forward looking, and active initiatives to effect change in
matters that may be unknown to the employer. Thus, in the long run, whistleblowing
may influence organizational performance, as it warns of potential pitfalls, and may
prevent loss of public standing and reputation, as well as the cost of a law suit or other
kinds of financial problems.
Individual differencesAlthough whistleblowing may have potential positive consequences for organizations,
many organization members, at least those not role prescribed to act, seem to stay
passive when confronted with organizational malpractice (Miceli et al., 2008). However,
even though the role of individual differences, such as the link between personality inrelation to whistleblowing behaviour has been raised (Miceli & Near, 2005; Miceli et al.,
2008; Miceli, Near, & Dworkin, 2009; Miceli, Van Scotter, Near, & Rehg, 2001), very few
have empirically investigated this issue.
If it is the case that there are certain characteristics associated with the active
initiating behaviour of whistleblowing, then these are most likely to be seen in
personality tests. While one study investigating whistleblowing intent among 98
respondents did not find any link between whistleblowing and three indicators of
personality: compliance with supervisors wishes, submissiveness to organizationalauthority, and a measure of self-righteousness (McCutcheon, 2000). Others have found a
positive interconnection between proactive personality, indicated by a higher level of
conscientiousness and extroversion as compared with the non-whistleblowing
counterparts, and whistleblowing behaviour (Miceli, Van Scotter, Near, & Rehg,
2001b, cited in Miceli & Near, 2005). One of the reasons why the link between
personality and whistleblowing has been difficult to detect empirically may due to that
earlier studies, have consisted of small samples (McCutcheon, 2000), and to minor
extent have applied validated measures of personality. Thus, studies that apply largersamples and standardized personality tests are needed. Two of the main models of
personality, which also may be seen as complementary, are the five-factor model and the
interpersonal model of personality (Wiggins & Trapnell, 1997). This study will apply
measures of these two main personality models to hypothesize, and later test, the role of
personality in relation to whistleblowing, employing two large samples.
The five-factor model of personalityAccording to the five-factor model, an individual’s personality consists of five general
dimensions: neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness, and
conscientiousness (Costa, Terracciano, & McCrae, 2001). These dimensions are seen as
Personality and proactive behaviour 373
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deep-rooted traits in an individual’s personality, affecting behaviour, and performance of
many kinds and in a range of situations (Pervin & John, 1997).
The first dimension, neuroticism, is described as the tendency to experience
distressing emotions including shame, anger, anxiety, and depression (Costa et al., 2001).
As neuroticism concerns psychological problems, it is generally correlated with negative
affectivity (Watson & Clark, 1997). Previous studies have shown that employees whohave observed wrongdoing report high scores on negative affectivity (Miceli et al., 2001b,
referred to in Miceli et al., 2008). On the other hand, the whistleblowing-related
behaviour voice is negatively related to neuroticism (LePine & Van Dyne, 2001).
Hypothesis 1a: Neuroticism is negatively related to whistleblowing behaviour.
The second dimension, extraversion, is described as the tendency to be sociable,
talkative, cheerful and optimistic (Costa et al., 2001). Individuals high on extraversionwelcome change and excitement (Watson & Clark, 1997). According to Watson and
Clark, extraverts are confident and persuasive in social interaction. Extraversion also
taps into positive emotionality (Matthews, Deary, & Whiteman, 2003). Extraversion can
consist of two schemes: surgency, which relates to status, and sociability, which
corresponds to issues of popularity; they resemble the major dimensions of dominance
and nurturance in the interpersonal theory of personality (cf. Watson & Clark, 1997).
However, as these two schemes share common features, Watson and Clark argue that
extraversion is most often treated as one construct within the five-factor model.Previous studies have shown that both whistleblowing and voice are positively
associated with extraversion (LePine & Van Dyne, 2001; Miceli & Near, 2005).
Hypothesis 1b: Extraversion is positively related to whistleblowing behaviour.
Openness to experience, the third dimension, concerns the tendency to have broad
areas of interest and to being highly imaginative (Furnham, 2008), as well as ‘seeing
possibilities that others miss’ (McCrae & Costa, 1997, p. 825). According to Furnham, an
individual with high openness to experience is described as curious, easily bored, andless rule bound. A low or average score on the other hand indicates an individual who is
down to earth, traditional, practical and who seeks balance (Furnham, 2008). Case
studies (Bjørkelo, Ryberg, Matthiesen, & Einarsen, 2008) and descriptions (Glazer, 1983)
of whistleblowers indicate that these individuals may be less curious and more rule
bound (low in openness) than easily bored and driven by the search for novelty (high in
openness). However, previous studies have shown that openness to experience is
unrelated to voice (LePine & Van Dyne, 2001). This unrelated association is not testable;
it is however assumed that openness to experience is unrelated to whistleblowing.Agreeableness, the fourth dimension, characterizes social interest in the form of
identification with others, empathy, selflessness, and cooperation (Graziano &
Eisenberg, 1997). These traits have previously been linked to the interpersonal model
of personality and to the dimension that concerns love and hate (Digman & Inouye,
1986), nurturance (Pincus, Gurtman, & Ruiz, 1998). In whistleblowing cases, individual
employees may be confronted with a situation in which a superior states that all ethical
considerations have been taken into account in an ongoing project, while, in practice,
he or she perceives or learns about actual unethical patient care or concealed fraud(Bakan, 2004; Bolsin, 1998; Rost, 2006; Soussan, 2008). In such a scenario, high
agreeableness may indicate an individual who does not want to jeopardize his or her
relationships, while low agreeableness is an indication that action could be taken.
374 Brita Bjørkelo et al.
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Previous studies have shown agreeableness to be negatively associated with voice
(LePine & Van Dyne, 2001).
Hypothesis 1c: Agreeableness is negatively related to whistleblowing behaviour.
The fifth dimension, conscientiousness, can be described as the tendency to beresponsible, achievement oriented, and persistent (Barrick, Mount, & Strauss, 1993). At
one extreme, conscientiousness implies being ‘a stickler for rules’, an individual who
cannot ‘bend’ to new rules when the situation, the system or the times change, as was
evident in the Leonard case described by Brodsky (1976). At the other end of the scale,
conscientiousness can instead be the tendency to be an active and responsible
employee who takes charge when problems arise. Whistleblowers are individuals who
must be able to proceed with their intent about reporting perceived wrongdoing. These
individuals may therefore be characterized by high conscientiousness. Preliminaryempirical evidence suggests that conscientiousness is positively associated with
employee voice (LePine & Van Dyne, 2001; Tangirala & Ramanujam, 2008).
Hypothesis 1d: Conscientiousness is positively related to whistleblowing behaviour.
The interpersonal theory of personalityAccording to Wiggins (1979), it is one thing to know how people differ from each other,and another to know what they do to each other. The interpersonal theory of
personality (McCrae & Costa, 1989; Sullivan, 1953) therefore complements the five-
factor model of personality (Wiggins & Trapnell, 1997). The traits extraversion,
agreeableness, and conscientiousness all have strong social components which play out
in social situations (Larsen & Buss, 2008; Matthews et al., 2003). Thus, while the five-
factor model concerns how an individual may be characterized according to five broad
personality dimensions, the interpersonal perspective deals with how individual
differences play out in social interactions. Interpersonal style can be assessed on theeight dimensions: domineering, vindictiveness, being cold, socially avoidant, non-
assertive, exploitable, overly nurturant, and intrusive, and these dimensions are likely to
vary in terms of severity and breadth, in both clinical and non-clinical populations
(Alden, Wiggins, & Pincus, 1990).
The first dimension, domineering, characterizes the tendency to try to change and
control other people (Alden et al., 1990). It is assumed to measure aspects of the same
dimension as extraversion (Kroeck & Brown, 2004; Pincus et al., 1998; Trapnell &
Wiggins, 1990). The act of whistleblowing has been described as a challenging form ofextra role behaviour in that it attempts to ‘prevent or prohibit other behaviours’ (Organ,
1997; Van Dyne et al., 1995, p. 230). Interpersonal dominance may be a prerequisite in
relation to effecting change, as it may enable resistance when superiors or wrongdoers
apply impression-management tactics to discredit the messenger in order to make
the reported wrongdoing appear harmless (Gundlach, Douglas, & Martinko, 2003).
Therefore, it may be the case that whistleblowers are more characterized by dominance
than their non-reporting colleagues.
Hypothesis 2a: Dominance is positively related to whistleblowing behaviour.
Vindictiveness is the second dimension and concerns spitefulness, distrust, feelings
of being too revengeful, and the inability to care about others’ needs (Alden et al., 1990).
Personality and proactive behaviour 375
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According to social psychological theories of prosocial behaviour, whistleblowers are
mostly motivated by a wish to help others (Dozier & Miceli, 1985). It has also been
argued that trust is a predictor of proactive behaviour (Rank, 2009). Studies have shown
that employees who have dared to highlight wrongdoing have often assumed that their
report would be welcomed (Bjørkelo et al., 2008; Rothschild & Miethe, 1999). Based on
the notion that whistleblowers are primarily motivated by prosocial intentions,combined with a general tendency to trust their managers, it is assumed that
whistleblowers are not characterized by an inability to care about others or by distrust.
Hypothesis 2b: Vindictiveness is negatively related to whistleblowing behaviour.
The third dimension, being cold, concerns being unable to express affection and love
for others, and having difficulties in committing to others (Alden et al., 1990). As the love–
hate dimension previously has been linked to agreeableness (Digman & Inouye, 1986), anemotionally cold profile may be related to low levels of agreeableness. Generally,
whistleblowers are not characterized by an antisocial motivation associated with a desire
to harm others, but rather by proactive initiative and concern for others (Miceli & Near,
1997; Near & Miceli, 1996). It may however be that some level of interpersonal coldness is
needed in order to be able to effect action. Thus, even though whistleblowers primarily
seem to be motivated by a wish to help others, the act of reporting on a senior
staff member, may play out as emotional coldness in interpersonal interaction.
Hypothesis 2c: Coldness is positively related to whistleblowing behaviour.
The fourth dimension, social avoidance, concerns difficulties in maintaining social
contacts, plus feelings of anxiousness, and embarrassment (Alden et al., 1990).
Employees high in social avoidance, who feel awkward in social settings, may be less
likely to report wrongdoing. The part of this dimension that relates to anxiousness may
tap into neuroticism, and also negative affectivity. As mentioned previously, observers of
wrongdoing are characterized by high scores of negative affectivity compared with non-
observers (Miceli et al., 2001b, referred to in Miceli et al., 2008). However, employeeswho not only observe but also report wrongdoing have not previously been described as
socially uncomfortable (Near & Miceli, 1996).
Hypothesis 2d: Social avoidance is negatively related to whistleblowing behaviour.
Non-assertiveness, the fifth dimension, concerns difficulties with being firm and
making one’s needs known to others. It also includes withdrawal from roles of authority
(Alden et al., 1990). Whistleblowers, illustrated here by the case of Tom Bailie who
reported hazards at Hanford Nuclear Reservation in the USA, have described theirexperience in the following manner: ‘What I have to do goes beyond my marriage and
my other family relationships’ (Glazer & Glazer, 1999, p. 282). The decision to go
through with a report requires the ability to make and stick to a decision that,
potentially, goes beyond one’s regular role. It is therefore assumed that potential
whistleblowers who have difficulty being determined and firm are less likely to report
witnessed wrongdoing.
Hypothesis 2e: Non-assertiveness is negatively related to whistleblowing behaviour.
The sixth dimension is exploitable. It concerns the tendency to fear that one is
offending others and also includes difficulties relating to feeling and expressing anger
376 Brita Bjørkelo et al.
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(Alden et al., 1990). Individuals characterized as exploitable are prone to letting
people persuade them too much and to being taken advantage of. Whistleblowers, on
the other hand, have been described as satisfied and valued members of organizations
(Near & Miceli, 1996), something which is not in line with feelings of interpersonal
exploitation.
Hypothesis 2f: Exploitability is negatively related to whistleblowing behaviour.
An individual with a high score on the seventh dimension, being overly nurturant,
feels that they trust, care, and are too generous towards others (Alden et al., 1990). As
stated earlier, this dimension is related to the five-factor dimension of agreeableness
(Trapnell & Wiggins, 1990). An individual characterized by a strong tendency to see the
needs of others may be driven by a motivation to secure good interpersonal
relationships with as many people as possible in order not to be perceived as sociallycold. Even though whistleblowers may be characterized as both empathic and caring,
they may be less likely to put the need for secure social relations over the drive to
change an intolerable situation (e.g., violation of ethical standards). As expressed by one
whistleblower: ‘I just hunched my back and heightened my shoulders, and thought:
here comes the storm’ (Bjørkelo et al., 2008, p. 28).
Hypothesis 2g: Nurturance is negatively related to whistleblowing behaviour.
The eighth and final dimension, intrusiveness, concerns interpersonal problems
related to attention seeking and self-disclosure (Alden et al., 1990). According to Alden
and colleagues, this includes feeling that one fools around too much and that one is too
open to people in terms of how much one reveals about oneself in social settings. Taking
the step of reporting wrongdoing is a decision that may be perceived by others as
intrusive. Proactive behaviour in general, and whistleblowing in particular, may elicit
negative reactions from superiors or colleagues because suggestions for change or
improvement may come across as ‘rocking the boat’ (Baer & Frese, 2003; Fine, 2006;Krull, 1996; Near & Miceli, 1986; Rothschild & Miethe, 1999; Sims & Keenan, 1998). In
the classic experiment on group pressure by Solomon Asch, one participant stated that
going against the group left him feeling ‘disturbed, puzzled, separated, like an outcast
from the rest. Every time I disagreed I was beginning to wonder if I wasn’t beginning to
look funny’ (Asch, 1952, p. 465). Whistleblowers are employees that seem to breech
this social psychological ‘barrier’. Thus, it can be assumed that they are characterized by
high scores on the intrusive dimension.
Hypothesis 2h: Intrusiveness is positively related to whistleblowing behaviour.
STUDY 1
Methods
ProcedureData were collected by randomly selecting 1,500 employees out of 17,000 employees
on the payrolls of one of Norway’s largest municipalities. Questionnaires
were distributed through the organization’s internal post, with a response rate of
33.5% (N ¼ 503).
Personality and proactive behaviour 377
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SampleThe mean age in the sample was 45.14 (SD ¼ 10:8) and 70% of the sample were female.
The majority (60%) of the respondents had an educational level equivalent to a college
or university degree (13 years or more), 30% had completed upper secondary school
(up to 12 years), while 10% had completed primary and lower secondary school (up to
9 years). With the exception of women being overrepresented, the demographiccomposition of the sample can be considered representative of the Norwegian public
sector working population (Severinsen & Høstmælingen, 2004). Across the units in the
municipality, almost 47% worked in departments dealing with kindergartens, schools, or
sports, almost 28% worked in healthcare-related positions, almost 16% worked in an
administrative or city council unit, while 2% worked in the culture department, dealing
with structuring, organizing, and financially supporting cultural activities in the
municipality. Some 8% worked in other units.
A one-way between-groups analysis of variance (ANOVA), showed that therewere no significant differences between the units in the municipality regarding age.
A chi-square test for independence showed that there was a significant difference
across units (x2 (4, N ¼ 453Þ ¼ 60:54, p ¼ :001) in that more females worked in the
fields of kindergartens, culture, and health care, while the distribution was more even
in the other units. There were no significant differences across units regarding
whistleblowing.
Measures applied
WhistleblowingWhistleblowing was measured by first presenting employees with the followingdefinition, influenced by the work of Near and Miceli (1985): ‘Whistle-blowing is when
an employee (former or current) that is witnessing or has witnessed an unethical,
illegal or illegitimate practice at work openly (not-anonymous) reports about it to
a person or a body that has the ability to change the practice. Whistleblowing is
not when reporting is done in order to gain personal profit. The person or body
that receives the report may be internal to the organization (for example a leader, safety
deputy, elected employee representative), but may also be an external body or group
of influence (for example the police or other public authorities, media, or anenvironmental organization). Reporting about one’s own exposure to workplace
bullying, is NOT regarded as whistleblowing’.
Response categories following the operational definition were (1) ‘No’, (2) ‘Yes,
on one occasion’, and (3) ‘Yes, on two occasions or more’. Respondents were also
asked about how long it was since they had blown the whistle. Here, response
categories were open-ended and respondents filled in the number of years since they
had blown the whistle. The whistleblowing measure was developed on the basis of
previous whistleblowing research and was administered in Norwegian.
PersonalityPersonality was measured by a Norwegian version of the Neo Five-Factor Inventory
(NEO-FFI; Martinsen, Nordvik, & Østbø, 2005), developed by Costa and McCrae (1992).
The NEO-FFI yields global information about five personality domains and consists of
60 items, where respondents indicate whether or not they agree with a range
of statements about themselves. The first of the five subscales is neuroticism. It includes
378 Brita Bjørkelo et al.
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12 items with statements such as ‘I often feel inferior to others’ and ‘I often feel helpless
and want someone else to solve my problems’. The extraversion dimension consists of
11 items and includes statements such as ‘I like to have a lot of people around me’ and ‘I
often feel as if I’m bursting with energy’. Openness to experience consists of 12 items
and includes statements such as ‘I don’t like to waste my time daydreaming’ and ‘I often
try new and foreign food’. The agreeableness dimension consists of 12 items andincludes statements such as ‘I would rather cooperate with others than compete with
them’ and ‘I try to be courteous to everyone I meet’. Conscientiousness is measured
using 12 items and includes statements such as ‘I keep my belongings neat and clean’
and ‘I work hard to accomplish my goals’. The NEO-FFI alpha values (Table 1) in this
study were in accordance with the Norwegian norms (Martinsen et al., 2005).
Results
Of the participants that responded to the whistleblowing question (N ¼ 501), 338
employees (67.4%) answered no to the question of whether they had reported in
accordance with the whistleblowing definition presented. Some 69 (13.8%) had blown
the whistle once, whereas 94 employees (18.8%) had blown the whistle twice or more.
Thus, in sum 163 employees (32.6%) reported to have blown the whistle in accordance
with the presented definition. Of the whistleblowers (N ¼ 163), nearly all (97%) had
reported wrongdoing in their current job. The average time since whistleblowing took
place was 2 years (SD ¼ 3:12). An ANOVA showed that there were no significantdifferences between (1) non-whistleblowers, (2) one-time whistleblowers, and (3) two
times or more whistleblowers regarding age. A chi-square test for independence showed
that there was a significant gender difference (x2 (2, N ¼ 497Þ ¼ 6:17, p ¼ :05) in that
females were overrepresented as both non-whistleblowers and one-time whistle-
blowers, while men were overrepresented among whistleblowers who had reported
wrongdoing twice or more.
Preliminary analysesTable 1 presents an overview of the bivariate associations between the five NEO-FFI
dimensions and the whistleblowing variable, including Cronbach’s alpha scores. As
shown, extraversion was the only NEO-FFI dimension that was significantly related to
the whistleblowing variable (.17). The correlation, employing Kendall’s tau correlation
Table 1. Descriptive statistics and Pearson’s product-moment and Kendall’s tau correlations
N Mean SD 1 2 3 4 5 6
1. Whistleblowing 503 1.51 0.802. Neuroticism 498 29.47 6.47 2 .06ns (.83)3. Extraversion 498 39.18 5.27 .17* 2 .48* (.78)4. Openness to experience 496 39.23 5.35 .06ns 2 .04ns .17* (.70)5. Agreeableness 498 47.01 4.19 2 .03ns 2 .35* .38* .19* (.68)6. Conscientiousness 498 46.25 4.80 .02ns 2 .40* .37* .11* .51* (.77)
Note. For the ordinal dependent variable, Kendall’s tau correlation was used. Cronbach’s alphacoefficients are presented on the diagonal in parenthesis.
*p , :01 (two-tailed); ns, non-significant.
Personality and proactive behaviour 379
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since whistleblowing is an ordinal variable, was positive, which indicates that high
extraversion is related to more whistleblowing.
Ordinal regressionThe main aim using sample 1, the municipality sample, was to test Hypotheses 1a–1d,
which concern the role of the five NEO-FFI personality dimensions in relation to
whistleblowing. The whistleblowing variable has characteristics that may reflect an
ordinal trend. Thus, a measurement model that acknowledges this, such as an ordinal
regression model (ORM), should be applied when the outcome variable is ordinal (Long
& Freese, 2001), in order to improve the model’s parsimony and power (Agresti, 2002).
To identify the independent variables that were significantly related to the three
whistleblowing categories, ordinal logistic regression models were estimated usingproportional (cumulative) odds models. However, the assumption of the underlying
order of the whistleblowing variable was tested first (Moore, 1999) by running a binary
logistic regression model with the cut-off being never having blown the whistle
(category 1), versus those who had blown the whistle once or more (categories 2 and 3).
Secondly, a binary logistic regression model was run with the cut-off being never having
blown the whistle or having blown the whistle once (categories 1 and 2) versus having
blown the whistle twice or more (category 3). If these two models yield very different
estimates for key parameters then proportional odds models are unlikely to work(L. Moore, personal communication, 12 June 2009). The results showed that the two
models yielded rather similar results, which indicated that a proportional odds model
was likely to work (controlled for age and gender). Hypothesis 1a–1e was then tested in
an ORM procedure.
As presented in Table 2, the dimensions in the NEO-FFI that were significantly related
to whistleblowing (controlled for age and gender) were extraversion (p , :01) and
agreeableness (p , :01). The extraversion odds ratio (OR ¼ 1:13) presented in Table 2
indicates that for every one unit increase, the expected odds increase by 1.13 whenmoving to the next category of whistleblowing. The extraversion 95% confidence
interval ranged from 1.08 to 1.19. The agreeableness odds ratio (OR ¼ 0:91) indicates
that, for every one unit increase, the expected odds decrease by .91 when moving to the
next category of whistleblowing. The agreeableness 95% confidence interval ranged
from 0.87 to 0.97. In sum, the findings from Study 1 showed that the NEO-FFI
personality dimensions of high extraversion and low agreeableness were significantly
associated with whistleblowing with odds ratios of 1.13 and 0.91, respectively.
Table 2. Odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals for being in a whistleblowing category when
estimated in a proportional odds model
95.0% CI for OR
Variables B SE p OR Lower Upper
Neuroticism 0.01 .02 .70 1.01 0.97 1.04Extraversion 0.13 .02 .00 1.13 1.08 1.19Openness to experience 0.02 .02 .21 1.03 0.99 1.06Agreeableness 20.09 .03 .00 0.91 0.87 0.97Conscientiousness 20.01 .02 .68 1.00 0.94 1.04
380 Brita Bjørkelo et al.
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Thus, Hypothesis 1b (high extraversion predicts whistleblowing) and Hypothesis 1d
(low agreeableness predicts whistleblowing) were supported, while Hypothesis 1a (low
neuroticism predicts whistleblowing) and Hypothesis 1d (high conscientiousness
predicts whistleblowing) were not supported. As assumed, openness to experience was
unrelated to whistleblowing.
STUDY 2
Methods
ProcedureTo further test the validity and generalizability of the results of Study 1, the findings were
aimed replicated in a second study applying a representative sample and a
complementary measure of personality. Data were collected by randomly selecting a
sample of 4,500 employees from the Norwegian Central Employee Register. This wasdone by Statistics Norway (SSB). Questionnaires were distributed via the Norwegian
postal service with a response rate of 57%. A total of 2,539 questionnaires were
satisfactorily completed and included in this study.
SampleThe mean age was 43.79 (SD ¼ 11:52) and 52% of the sample was female. The majority
had between 11–13 (51%) or 14–17 years (34%) of education. Nearly, 8% had between
18 and 10 years of education, a minority (6%) had up to 10 years of education, while 2%
had more than 20 years of education. With the exception of women being slightly
overrepresented, the demographic composition of the sample may be considered
representative for the Norwegian working population (Høstmark & Lagerstrøm, 2006).
Measures applied
WhistleblowingWhistleblowing was measured by first presenting employees with the following
definition, influenced by the work of Near and Miceli (1985): ‘Whistleblowing describes
situations where an employee (former or current) reports an unethical, illegal or
illegitimate practice at work. The person reports to a person or a body that hasthe ability to change the practice. The person or body that receives the report may
be internal to the organization (for example a leader, safety deputy, elected employee
representative) but may also be an external body (for example the police or other
public authorities, media, environmental organization). Whistleblowing concerns
actions that affect others (individuals, organizations, society). It is not whistleblowing
if one reports injustice towards oneself, if it is done anonymously, in order to gain
personal profit, or if it is conducted through established internal procedures’.
An example of an established internal procedure is the health, safety, and workingenvironment (HSE) system, widely applied in Norwegian working life, to ensure that
general mistakes or deviations from established operating standards are reported (Bull,
Riise, & Moen, 2002). Because whistleblowing procedures were not necessarily
included in such HSE procedures at the time of this study, the operational definition only
included employees who had blown the whistle without applying such ordinary or
Personality and proactive behaviour 381
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standard procedures. Response categories following the operational definition were
(1) ‘No’, (2) ‘Yes, on one occasion’, and (3) ‘Yes, on two occasions or more’.
Respondents were also asked how long it was since they had blown the whistle. Here,
response categories were open ended and respondents filled in the number of years and
months since they had blown the whistle. The whistleblowing measure was developed
on the basis of previous whistleblowing research and was administered in Norwegian.
PersonalityPersonality was measured by the Norwegian version of the Inventory of Interpersonal
Problems – Circumplex (Alden et al., 1990) called circumplex of interpersonal problems(CIP; Pedersen, 2001, 2002; Pedersen & Karterud, 2007). The CIP consists of 48 items
with the following dimensions; domineering (6 items), vindictive (5 items), cold
(6 items), socially avoidant (6 items), non-assertive (5 items), exploitable (6 items),
overly nurturant (6 items), and intrusive (6 items; Pedersen, 2002). The first statements
start with the wording ‘It is hard for me to… ’, followed by statements such as
‘Join groups’. The second part consists of items starting with the wording ‘Things that
you are or do too much of towards others’, followed by statements such as ‘I fight with
other people too much’. Each item is rated on a five-point Likert scale ranging from‘not at all’ (0) ‘to very much’ (4). The CIP alpha values are presented in Table 3.
Results
Of the participants that responded to the whistleblowing question (N ¼ 2; 378), 2,090employees (87.8%) answered ‘no’ to the question of whether they had reported in
accordance with the whistleblowing definition presented, while some 156 (6.6%) had
blown the whistle once, and 132 (5.6%) had blown the whistle twice or more. Thus, in
sum 288 employees (12.2%) said they had blown the whistle in accordance with the
presented definition. Of the whistleblowers (N ¼ 288), some 93% had blown the
whistle in their current job. The mean time since whistleblowing took place was under
3 years (SD ¼ 3:62). An ANOVA showed that there were no significant differences
between non-whistleblowers and one-time or two times or more whistleblowers inrelation to age. A chi-square test for independence showed that there was a significant
gender difference (x2(2, N ¼ 2; 378Þ ¼ 11:65, p ¼ :01) in that females were over-
represented as non-whistleblowers and as one-time whistleblowers, while males had
more often blown the whistle twice or more.
Preliminary analysisTable 3 provides an overview of the bivariate associations between the eight CIP
dimensions, and the whistleblowing variable, including Cronbach’s alpha scores. As
shown, the following CIP dimensions: being too domineering (.10), too nurturant (.05),
and too intrusive (.06), were significantly associated with whistleblowing, employing
Kendall’s tau correlation since whistleblowing is an ordinal variable. All correlations
were positive, which indicates that elevated levels of the eight interpersonal dimensionsare related to more whistleblowing. A high score on dominance indicates reporting
‘problems relating to controlling, manipulating, aggressing toward, and trying to change
others’ (Alden et al., 1990, p. 528). Being overly nurturant indicates trying too hard to
be generous, trustworthy, and caring. Participants who score high on the intrusive
382 Brita Bjørkelo et al.
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Table
3.
Des
crip
tive
stat
istics
and
Pear
son’s
pro
duct
-mom
ent
and
Ken
dal
l’sta
uco
rrel
atio
ns
NM
ean
SD1
23
45
67
89
1.W
his
tleb
low
ing
2,3
78
1.1
80.5
1–
2.D
om
inee
ring
2,3
65
0.5
20.5
2.1
0**
(.78)
3.V
indic
tive
2,3
72
0.9
40.9
22
.01
ns
.22**
(.87)
4.C
old
2,3
70
1.1
50.7
6.0
2ns
.21**
.72**
(.80)
5.So
cial
lyav
oid
ant
2,3
60
0.8
80.7
5.0
1ns
.21**
.69**
.73**
(.82)
6.N
onas
sert
ive
2,3
69
1.4
20.7
72
.01
ns
.03
ns
.13**
.31**
.28**
(.78)
7.Explo
itab
le2,3
69
1.2
20.6
9.0
2ns
.21**
.46**
.53**
.60**
.56**
(.76)
8.O
verl
ynurt
ura
nt
2,3
63
1.1
80.6
3.0
5**
.41**
.21**
.28**
.34**
.34**
.50**
(.74)
9.In
trusi
ve2,3
65
1.0
00.5
8.0
6**
.54**
.41**
.33**
.37**
.15**
.39**
.53**
(.59)
Not
e.Fo
rth
eord
inal
dep
enden
tva
riab
le,K
endal
l’sta
uco
rrel
atio
nw
asuse
d.C
ronbac
h’s
alpha
coef
fici
ents
are
pre
sente
don
the
dia
gonal
inpar
enth
esis
.
*p,
:05
(tw
o-t
aile
d);
**p,
:01
(tw
o-t
aile
d);
ns,
non-s
ignifi
cant.
Personality and proactive behaviour 383
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dimension are, on the other hand, characterized by inappropriate self-disclosure,
attention-seeking, and having a hard time being alone. The intrusive dimension, which
consists of six items, showed a rather low Cronbach’s alpha score of .59, as seen in Table
3. An investigation of the inter-correlations of the intrusive items showed that no
particular items should be removed to improve the alpha level and that the dimension
was significantly associated with the dependent variable (Table 3). Furthermore,intrusion has previously shown satisfactory Cronbach’s alphas in clinical as well as non-
clinical samples (Pedersen, 2001). Despite low Cronbach’s alpha scores for the intrusion
dimension, intrusion was included together with the others in the further analysis.
Ordinal regressionThe main aim of using sample 2, the national representative sample, was to testHypothesis 2 (2a–2h), which concerns the role of each CIP personality dimension in
relation to proactive behaviour in the form of whistleblowing, following the same
procedure as for sample 1.
As presented in Table 4, the only CIP dimension that was significantly related to
whistleblowing (controlled for age and gender) was domineering (p , :01). The
dominance odds ratio (OR ¼ 1:66) presented in Table 4 indicates that, for every one unit
increase, the expected odds increase by 1.66 when moving to the next category of
whistleblowing. The domineering 95% confidence interval ranged from 1.27 to 2.16.Thus, Hypothesis 2a (high dominance predicts whistleblowing) was supported, while
Hypotheses 2b (low vindictiveness predicts whistleblowing), 2c (low coldness predicts
whistleblowing), 2d (low social avoidance predicts whistleblowing), 2e (low non-
assertiveness predicts whistleblowing), 2f (low exploitability predicts whistleblowing),
2g (low overly nurturance predicts whistleblowing), and 2h (high intrusiveness predicts
whistleblowing) were not supported.
In sum, the findings from Study 2 showed that the CIP personality dimension of high
domineering was significantly associated with whistleblowing, with an odds ratio of
1.66. This finding provides partial support for the findings from Study 1, as dominance is
assumed to measure the same overarching five-factor dimension as extraversion (Kroeck
& Brown, 2004). Being overly nurturant, which has previously been linked to
agreeableness (Trapnell & Wiggins, 1990), does not, however, support the finding from
Table 4. Odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence intervals for being in a whistleblowing category when
estimated in a proportional odds model
95.0% CI for OR
Variables B SE p OR Lower Upper
Domineering 0.51 .13 .00 1.66 1.27 2.16Vindictive 20.09 .11 .44 0.92 0.73 1.14Cold 0.16 .14 .24 1.18 0.90 1.54Socially avoidant 20.15 .14 .28 0.86 0.65 1.14Nonassertive 20.10 .10 .34 0.91 0.74 1.11Exploitable 0.08 .14 .56 1.09 0.82 1.44Overly nurturant 0.05 .13 .73 1.05 0.80 1.36Intrusive 0.13 2 .15 .39 1.14 0.85 1.52
384 Brita Bjørkelo et al.
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Study 1 that low agreeableness predicts whistleblowing, which indicates that this
finding is less stable across measures.
DISCUSSION
The results of these two studies show that personality, in the form of high extraversion,
low agreeableness, and high domineering in interpersonal interaction, predicts
proactive behaviour in the form of whistleblowing. The finding that extraversion and
dominance are significant predictors of whistleblowing is in line with the notion of
proactivity at work characterized by initiative, action, and behaviour aimed at change
(Bateman & Crant, 1993; Furnham, 1997). The findings are further partly in line with
previous whistleblowing studies that have found personality to have no link withintended whistleblowing (McCutcheon, 2000) but to be associated with whistleblowing
behaviour in the form of a positive association with conscientiousness and extraversion
(Miceli et al., 2001b, cited in Miceli & Near, 2005).
High scorers on extraversion are generally described as enjoying the company of
others and as being talkative and sociable (Judge, Heller, & Mount, 2002), while the
tendency to be domineering signifies trying to change and control other people
(Alden et al., 1990). Individuals characterized by high levels of dominance and
extraversion may, to a greater extent than others, seek social settings, as opposed tomore introverted and socially avoidant individuals who may wait until occasions arise
or even avoid such situations. Talkative and sociable people may also be more prone
to verbally share uncertainty or scepticism about perceived wrongdoing than others,
and may be less submissive. An individual characterized by being domineering and
showing extravert behaviour may also be more resistant than other employees to
impression-management tactics (Gundlach et al., 2003), be it from management or
the wrongdoer(s).
Dominance may also tap into the tendency of ‘not letting go’ and indicatepersistence in relation to issues of personal importance. It may, so to speak, be the
negative side of extraversion. This finding may reflect what previous whistleblowing
studies have found, namely that whistleblowers are employees who continue to report
over and over again if their report is not heard or if they are retaliated against (Bjørkelo
et al., 2008; Rothschild & Miethe, 1999). Altogether, these findings suggest that highly
extravert and domineering employees are more prone to intervene when confronted
with wrongdoing at work than employees without these characteristics. It may also
be the case that these employees are more assertive, at the same time as they areless afraid than other employees to report and are more confident that their concerns
will be heard.
Positive affect is at the core of extraversion, as opposed to neuroticism and negative
affectivity (Watson & Clark, 1997). While previous studies have found that observers of
wrongdoing reported higher levels of negative affectivity than non-observers, this study
found that whistleblowers are characterized by extraversion. It has been proposed
that positive affect is a probable predictor of the likelihood that an employee will
intervene, while observation may be predicted by negative affect (Miceli et al., 2001).This assumption is in line with studies that have found positive affect to be
positively related to personal initiative (Den Hartog & Belschak, 2007), to engagement
in proactive behaviour (Fritz & Sonnentag, 2009), and to prosocial behaviour
(Cunningham, Steinberg, & Grev, 1980). This may also be the case with whistleblowing.
Personality and proactive behaviour 385
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As predicted, and in line with previous studies of whistleblowing-related
phenomena, such as voice (LePine & Van Dyne, 2001), low agreeableness also
predicted whistleblowing. The agreeableness dimension may be described as the
motivation ‘to look good in the eyes of others’ (Graziano & Tobin, 2002, p. 719). The
low score implies that whistleblowers may be characterized as being less concerned
than other employees with ‘getting along’ and not ‘rocking the boat’. Low scores onagreeableness are also linked to acting on and expressing one’s emotions (Ilies, Scott, &
Judge, 2006). It therefore appears that whistleblowers are employees who dare to
jeopardize how they look in the eyes of others for the sake of stopping wrongdoing at
work, such as sexual harassment or unethical recruitment practices.
The hypothesis that conscientiousness would be positively related to whistle-
blowing behaviour was not supported. The only previous study that, to our knowledge,
has found such an association (Miceli et al., 2001b, cited in Miceli & Near, 2005)
unfortunately does not report information about sample and measures, which couldhave offered some explanations to these diverging findings. The present study also
tested several other hypotheses about the role of single personality dimensions in
relation to whistleblowing behaviour that did not receive support. This may be due to
that the size of the effect of single personality dimensions in relation to whistleblowing
behaviour still is unclear. Thus, although a link may reasonably be raised based on
theoretical reasoning, the strength of the associations is not known. Hence, it may be
that the role of personality in relation to whistleblowing behaviour may be detected
with a more detailed instrument of personality.Even though personality, in the form of being high on extraversion and dominance
and low on agreeableness, does explain some variance of whistleblowing behaviour in
the present study, a meta-analytic examination of 193 correlations assembled from
almost 19,000 participants across 26 samples, found that situational and contextual
factors seem to be equally important as predictors of whistleblowing behaviour
(Mesmer-Magnus & Viswesvaran, 2005). In the latter study, context predictors such as
organizational climate were positively correlated with whistleblowing behaviour (.10).
Hence, proactivity in the form of whistleblowing behaviour may both be hired andstimulated. Thus, two of the most effective ways to stimulate whistleblowing behaviour
may be through recruitment procedures and by creating an organizational climate that
signals that management is interested in having employees who act proactively when
they perceive wrongdoing at work.
Strengths and limitationsThe present study has both strengths and limitations. One strength is that this study
reports on two large-scale employee surveys, one of which is a nationally representative
sample. It should be noted, however, that the response rates in the two samples
included in this study ranged from 33.5% in sample 1 to 57% in sample 2. The former is,
to say the least, somewhat low. Response rates of 30% are, however, not ‘uncommon for
survey research’ (Thompson, Beauvais, & Lyness, 1999, p. 410). It should be mentioned
that mean response rates for organizational studies that apply data collected from
individuals has been found to be 52.7, with a standard deviation of 20.4 (Baruch &Holtom, 2008).
Secondly, the present study applied validated measures of individual characteristics.
Together, the NEO-FFI and the CIP cover a broad area of an employee’s personality.
However, even though describing an individual’s standing on the five overall domains of
386 Brita Bjørkelo et al.
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the NEO-FFI provides a good sketch of a person’s emotional, interpersonal, experiential,
attitudinal, and motivational styles (Costa & McCrae, 1992; McCrae & Costa, 2004), the
full version of the Big Five (NEO-PI-R), which comprises 240 items and includes 30 facet
scales, could have provided a more nuanced result for the overall personality pattern,
as opposed to the short version of NEO-FFI applied in this study. Therefore, it was
useful to apply two personality measures. While both extraversion and agreeablenesswere significant predictors using the NEO-FFI, only extraversion was supported by the
CIP results.
Thirdly, this study investigated actual whistleblowing behaviour, which denotes
reports from employees who acknowledge having actually reported wrongdoing at
work (Mesmer-Magnus & Viswesvaran, 2005), as opposed to the propensity or intention
to blow the whistle. Measuring actual whistleblowing is based on self-reporting, which
may be flawed due to its reliance on past events. However, measuring actual behaviour
is invaluable because ‘what people say they would do is not necessarily the same as whatthey would do, and what people say would influence their behaviour is not necessarily
what actually influences them’ (Miceli et al., 2009, p. 386). Scenario studies and
hypothetical cases are useful for answering the research question about whether
personality dispositions and, specifically, the tendency to be active and initiate change,
may explain why some employees report wrongdoing while others do not. However,
although such studies are necessary, they alone do not provide a sufficient answer to this
research question because they only concern what people say they would do as
opposed to what they actually do. Universal discharge of any of these researchapproaches, due to low ecological validity or based solely on their reliance on self-
reporting, is therefore unhelpful.
The present study applied a cross-sectional design that is susceptible to common
method variance. According to Podsakoff and Organ (1986), procedural and design
remedies are recommended above statistical remedies in relation to common method
variance. Procedural remedies applied in both studies were different scale end-points
and formats. As anonymity is also assumed to reduce evaluation apprehension and
method biases (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee, & Podsakoff, 2003), this was applied in bothstudies. Statistical remedies include such as Harman’s single-factor test, which is based
on the assumption that common method variance is present if a single factor emerges
from an exploratory factor analysis of all the variables in the study (Podsakoff et al.,
2003). The Harman test did not reveal the presence of single underlying factors in either
of the two studies. This is in line with previous studies that have found common method
variance not to be severe in studies of ‘actual events’ (Miceli & Near, 2002, p. 463).
Future studiesThe present study did not measure positive and negative affectivity, but neuroticism and
extraversion. It is therefore suggested that future studies investigate this link, in order to
establish whether observers of misconduct are systematically characterized by negative
affect and neuroticism, while proactive whistleblowers are extravert individuals
characterized by positive affect. Another suggestion is to test whether whistleblowing
can be explained by ‘common, underlying individual differences in active, pleasure-seeking behaviour’, as suggested by Tellegen (referred to in Watson & Clark, 1997,
p. 787). In line with this, extensive studies by Depue et al. (Depue & Collins, 1999;
Depue, Luciana, Arbisi, Collins, & Leon, 2002) have provided support for the role
of dopamine, an underlying biological mechanism, in relation to personality and
Personality and proactive behaviour 387
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extraversion. The question, therefore, is not only which personality factors relate to
proactive behaviour and whistleblowing, but also why they do so.
Future studies could also investigate whether personality is more a moderator
variable than a direct predictor of whistleblowing behaviour. This may include
investigating the predictive power of situational (e.g., downsizing) and organizational
factors (e.g., the climate for personal initiative). This could include combining individualwith group-level measures in the investigation of the impact of, for instance,
organizational climate (multi-level design) on wrongdoing, observation of wrongdoing,
silent observers, and whistleblowers. Such an approach may also enable an investigation
of the link between personality, proactive behaviour in the form of whistleblowing, and
objective measures of job performance.
Contribution and practical implicationsThe results of the present study may be practically applicable in several ways. Firstly,
they could be used to understand what characterizes proactive employees in general
and whistleblowers in particular. We found that they are mainly extraverted and
domineering in interpersonal interaction. This finding could be applied in discussions
about the role of personality. One framework that may be useful in this regard is the
spiral of incivility, which assumes that a negative and uncivil act may be followed by an
increasingly negative act that in turn may escalate into a spiral of conflict (Andersson &Pearson, 1999; Penney & Spector, 2005). In whistleblowing cases, this type of spiral may
start if the focus is on the individual characteristics of the whistleblower instead of on
the content of the whistleblowing. This focus on the individual may lead to dismissal of
the actual content of the whistleblowing as the act is portrayed as hostile opposition
from a disgruntled employee with bad intentions. As a result of feeling attacked,
managers, complaint recipients, and co-workers may respond to whistleblowing with
formal (e.g., demotion) or informal (e.g., ostracism) retaliation (De Maria & Jan, 1997).
The whistleblowers may in turn counter-strike with the same means. Ultimately,secondary incivility spirals involving more and more parties develop, and the content of
the original whistleblowing is forgotten.
Discussions of the role of personality within the spirals of incivility may then be
extended by using exercises on assumptions and expectations of proactive behaviours,
as these may be perceived as unconventional and challenging (Grant, Parker, & Collins,
2009). Proactive initiative may be ‘negatively sanctioned by peers or managers because
taking initiative “rocks the boat” and is perceived as threatening by those directly
affected’ (Baer & Frese, 2003, p. 49). The aim of working with assumptions andexpectations of proactive behaviour is to match employer and employee expectations
about what range of proactivity and initiative is desired and sought-after in individual
organizations. In continuation, both the discussions and the work on expectations may
be used as background material for developing policies that state that retaliation of
whistleblowers not is tolerated (Greene & Latting, 2004; Miceli et al., 2009). Previous
research has shown that clear examples of unwanted organizational behaviour or
practices is helpful in this regard (Bowes-Sperry & O’Leary-Kelly, 2005).
The results from this study may also have implications for how practitioners shouldwork with potential and actual whistleblowers. Proactive employees who score high on
extraversion and dominance and low on agreeableness may have a tendency to suggest
many changes and to persevere with their initiatives. They may also be attacked for the
way they reported wrongdoing. Counselling sessions may therefore include working
388 Brita Bjørkelo et al.
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towards balancing the potentially large amount of initiative the employee displays, as
well as helping potential whistleblowers to deal with the whistleblowing act.
Another implication may be that organizations valuing and aiming at creating
proactive workplaces associated with creativity and initiative may actively search for
personnel that possess personality characteristics associated with proactivity (Miceli
et al., 2009). Along these lines, the results from this study may be used to developscreening procedures for employees that portray individual characteristics associated
with extraversion and dominance and to some extent, low agreeableness. Personnel
selection context predictors are usually validated against job performance, which may
be defined as employee behaviour that is valuable to the organization (Motowidlo,
2003). Proactive behaviour in general and whistleblowing in particular has the potential
to be of great value to organizations because having employees that initiate change, take
charge often not only intend but actually try to stop harmful use human and monetary
resources (Fay & Frese, 2001; Miceli et al., 2001).
Conclusion
This study expands knowledge of the role of personality in relation to proactive
behaviour in the form of whistleblowing. More than 15 years ago, Rothschild and
Miethe noted that ‘the characterization generally adopted by management, that whistle-
blowers are disgruntled and embittered employees, is generally not the case’ (1994,
p. 258). Hitherto, few studies have addressed the role of personality in relation to
whistleblowing using broad standardized measures of personality. The results of this
study show that personality in the form of high extraversion, low agreeableness, and
high domineering in interpersonal interaction predicts whistleblowing. Together, thesefindings paint a picture of the role of personality in relation to proactive behaviour in the
form of whistleblowing. Our findings challenge the notion of whistleblowers as mainly
being troublemakers. Organizations and their members should therefore undergo
what Miceli and Near (2005) labelled a cultural transformation, so that whistleblowing
can be regarded more as proactive behaviour than something to avoid. As a result,
whistleblowing may become the effective internal social control system it has the
potential to be.
Acknowledgements
We are most grateful to several persons. Without their contributions and efforts this study could
not have been carried out. Data provided to Study 1 presented here was collected by former
students in psychology Kari Severinsen and Andreas Høstmælingen at the Faculty of Psychology,
University of Bergen, with Stig Berge Matthiesen acting as their supervisor. Study 2 was collected
with the help of Statistics Norway (Statistisk Sentralbyra) for the University of Bergen, the Bergen
Bullying Research Group at the Department of Psychosocial Science. The first study was financed
by the Department of Psychosocial Science while the last study was financed by grants from two
Norwegian employers associations (Næringslivets Hovedorganisasjon and Kommunenes
Sentralforbund) and the Norwegian government (Rikstrygdeverket). Thanks also go to Bengt
Oscar Lagerstrøm and Maria Høstmark in Statistics Norway, and to Anders Skogstad and
Morten Birkeland Nielsen, both from the Department of Psychosocial Science at the University of
Bergen for their contribution. We would also like to express our thanks to Laurence Moore,
Professor of Public Health Improvement, at Cardiff University, UK for statistical advice. We thank
the editor and three anonymous reviewers for very helpful suggestions.
Personality and proactive behaviour 389
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