Investigating Malaysian Employees’ Whistleblowing Intentions to Corporate Fraud: the Impact of Organisational Culture and Perceived Seriousness of Wrongdoing, with Moral Courage as a Mediator

Siew, Ee Xuan (2025) Investigating Malaysian Employees’ Whistleblowing Intentions to Corporate Fraud: the Impact of Organisational Culture and Perceived Seriousness of Wrongdoing, with Moral Courage as a Mediator. Masters thesis, Tunku Abdul Rahman University of Management and Technology.

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Abstract

Revisiting past scandals like Enron, Lehman Brothers, Malaysia's 1MDB, and Top Glove underscores that no single individual can oversee all operations effectively, highlighting the indispensable role of whistleblowers. These individuals are crucial for identifying, reporting, and escalating unethical behaviour, such as financial manipulation, in a timely manner. Recognising this, governments worldwide, including Malaysia, have taken steps to enhance whistleblower protections through financial incentives and improved reporting mechanisms. This study aims to investigate how individual’s moral courage mediates the effects of organisational culture and the perceived seriousness of wrongdoing on whistleblowing intention. To achieve these research objectives, a quantitative approach and cross-sectional method were utilised, surveying employees currently working in Malaysian companies. The collected data, comprising 338 responses, were analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) and Partial Least Square – Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), specifically SmartPLS. The findings indicate that moral courage only mediates the relationship between organisational culture and whistleblowing intention, emphasising its role in bridging this critical gap. Leaders are encouraged to address moral courage by modeling ethical behaviour, implementing supportive policies, and enhancing leadership credibility. Notably, the study sheds light on the unstable relationship between perceived seriousness of wrongdoing and whistleblowing intentions, finding that the former does not significantly influence the latter across different sectors. These insights provide valuable guidance for fostering ethical practices and encouraging whistleblowing within organisations.