Journal Facts

Journal
Journal of Workplace Rights
ISSN
1938-4998 (print) 1938-5005 (electronic)
Volume
17
Issue
3
Date
1/1/2013

Article Facts

Title
Whistleblowing in Organizations: A Logit analysis of Litigated Cases
DOI
10.2190/WR.17.3-4.c
Authors
  • Yvette P. Lopez
  • Helen Lavan
  • Marsha Katz
Pages
283-302
Online Date
10/16/2014

Article Links

Whistleblowing in Organizations: A Logit analysis of Litigated Cases

Yvette P. Lopez
Helen Lavan
Marsha Katz

DOI: 10.2190/WR.17.3-4.c

Abstract

This study examines the issue of whistleblowing in organizations. As suggested by the literature, a variety of legal protections and issues were examined to predict case outcomes in future litigation by individuals who engage in the act of whistleblowing. We used chi square analyses and a logit model to predict when an individual plaintiff would prevail, and the results indicate that case characteristics including discrimination laws, safety behavior, sexual harassment, and refusal to participate in illegal activities are significant predictors. The odds of a finding in favor of the employee increase with the presence of these particular case characteristics. Our examination uses litigated cases as the source of data, which allows for a rich analysis of occurrences relating to whistleblowing in a large number of organizations. The results of this study suggest that individuals increase their chances for successful litigation when these specific issues of discrimination laws, safety behavior, sexual harassment, and refusal to participate in illegal activities are involved in the whistleblowing occurrence.

Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.