A preliminary investigation of the relationship between selected organizational characteristics and external whistleblowing by employees

Whistleblowing by employees to regulatory agencies and other parties external to the organization can have serious consequences both for the whistleblower and the company involved. Research has largely focused on individual and group variables that affect individuals' decision to blow the whistle on perceived wrongdoing.This study examined the relationship between selected organizational characteristics and the perceived level of external whistleblowing by employees in 240 organizations. Data collected in a nationwide survey of human resource executives were analyzed using analysis of variance.Results indicated that executives of larger organizations perceived a higher level of employee-voiced concerns to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, as well as a higher overall level of external whistleblowing. Executives of organizations with union employees perceived a higher level of employee-voiced concerns to the EEOC, the media, and a higher overall level of external whistleblowing. Executives of organizations in the manufacturing industry group perceived a higher level of employee-voiced concerns to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.The implications of these findings are discussed, and limitations of the research are addressed. The paper concludes with several suggestions for continued research.Tim Barnett is an Assistant Professor of Management at Louisiana Tech University. His current research interests include ethical issues in human resources management and ethical decision making. His work has appeared in various journals, including theJournal of Business Research, theJournal of Business Communication, and theJournal of Business Ethics.     

解析中国投资高增长

近年来中国投资增长迅速,投资占GDP百分比已经超过40%。尽管银行和国有企业改革都取得了很大进步,但是影响投资决策有效性的因素依然存在。制造业、基础设施和房地产推动了固定资产投资。本文的经济计量分析表明,制造业投资与企业流动性(大部分来自于留存收益)显著相关。住宅房地产投资与真实居民收入的增长和真实抵押贷款利率的相关性很弱。这些发现的政策意义是减少企业的流动性,如:要求国有企业向政府支付股利、运用货币政策减少流动性、提高真实利率,以减缓制造业和房地产的投资增速。     

Commercial policy variability, bindings, and market access

Protection unconstrained by rules often varies substantially over time. Rules-based disciplines, such as WTO tariff bindings and bindings on market access in services, constrain this variability. We examine the theoretical effects of such constraints on the expected cost of protection and offer a formalization of the concept of “market access”, emphasizing both the first and second moments of the distribution of protection. As an illustration, we provide a stylized examination of Uruguay Round bindings on wheat.