Factors Influencing Employees' Willingness to Use Organisational Whistleblowing Systems Among Malaysian

Loh, Carmen (2026) Factors Influencing Employees' Willingness to Use Organisational Whistleblowing Systems Among Malaysian. Masters thesis, Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology.

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Abstract

This study examines the factors influencing employees’ willingness to use organisational whistleblowing systems by focusing on corporate ethics training, whistleblowing system effectiveness, and organisational trust. The study aims to investigate both the direct and indirect relationships among these variables in shaping whistleblowing behaviour within organisational settings. A quantitative research approach was adopted, and data were collected through a structured questionnaire distributed to employees. The collected data were analysed using SPSS through multiple regression and mediation analysis to test the proposed hypotheses. The findings reveal that corporate ethics training significantly enhances both organisational trust and employees’ willingness to use the whistleblowing system. In addition, whistleblowing system effectiveness was found to significantly influence organisational trust. The mediation analysis further indicates that organisational trust plays a significant mediating role in the relationships between corporate ethics training and whistleblowing system effectiveness with employees’ willingness to use the whistleblowing system. However, the results also show that whistleblowing system effectiveness and organisational trust do not have a direct significant influence on employees’ willingness to report misconduct. These findings suggest that formal systems and organisational trust alone are insufficient to encourage whistleblowing behaviour, as employees are influenced by behavioural and contextual factors such as perceived risk and fear of retaliation. This study contributes to the literature by providing a more comprehensive understanding of how organisational mechanisms interact to influence whistleblowing behaviour. The findings offer valuable insights for organisations to strengthen corporate governance practices by emphasising ethics training, improving reporting systems, and creating a supportive environment that encourages ethical reporting behaviour.