A MULTI-STAKEHOLDER FRAMEWORK OF EMPLOYEE WHISTLEBLOWING:

AN EXPANDED SOCIAL COMPARISON PERSPECTIVE

Guest Speaker: Prof. Cuili QIAN (University of Texas at Dallas)

Time/Date:      10 am Mon 3^rd, July 2023 (Beijing Time)

Classroom:      Room 2101, Tongji Building A

ABSTRACT

We integrate social comparison theory into stakeholder research and theorize how employees’ external market mobility and internal firm-treatment conditions affect their whistleblowing behaviors. We argue that employee mobility in the labor market will increase the likelihood of employee whistleblowing. This relationship is expected to vary based on a firm’s relative treatment of employees compared to other stakeholders in financial and nonfinancial domains, respectively. Relying on a quasi-natural experiment and a sample of establishment-level data on employee whistleblowing in the U.S. from 1992 to 2013, we find that employees tend to engage in whistleblowing more frequently when the labor market mobility increases due to a relaxation in the enforceability of non-compete agreements. The increase in whistleblowing is stronger for firms with a higher pay disparity within an organization or with a higher disparity between employee and other stakeholder treatments. This study makes contributions to stakeholder theory through building a new linkage between a firm’s stakeholder treatment and employee outcomes. Our study also makes contributions to social comparison theory and whistleblowing literature by expanding the social referents and uncovering the implications of comparisons across different social referents in the whistleblowing context.

Key words: employee whistleblowing, social comparisons, stakeholder theory, employee mobility

GUEST BIO

Dr. Cuili Qian is Associate Professor of Organization, Strategy, and International Management Department at University of Texas at Dallas. She received her Ph.D. in Strategic Management from Hong Kong University of Science & Technology. Prior to joining UT-Dallas, she worked at the City University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include stakeholder management, corporate governance and political strategies in transitional economies, and MNC control and staffing issues in international business. She has published in management journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, and Journal of Management. She currently serves on editorial boards of Academy of Management Journal, Strategic Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, and Journal of Management.