Whistle-blowing & peer reporting : a cross-cultural comparison of Canadians and Chinese

Abstract

This study examined the impact of cultural differences on whistle blowing and peer reporting between Canada and China using Graham’s (1986) model of principled organizational dissent in conjunction with Hofstede’s culture theory (1980, 1993, & 2001). These countries have been shown, by Hofstede, to differ on important cultural dimensions which are expected to influence ethical decision-making. This study found that Canadian subjects felt more responsibility for reporting than Chinese subjects. The likelihood of whistle blowing was less than the likelihood of peer reporting for Chinese subjects. The results of the study supported the expectation that culture was related to subjects’ ethical judgments, which has implications for ethics training programs and the internal control system of multinational corporations.