Navigating the Safety Whistleblowing Dilemma: Configurational Recipes of Organizational Policies and Employee Psychology

Abstract: To promote safety whistleblowing, organizations rely on two policy levers: reward and protection. However, their effectiveness depends on employees' psychological profiles, an aspect overlooked in prior research. Drawing on sensemaking theory, this study examines how these policies interact with psychological factors identified through employee interviews. A fuzzy-set QCA of scenario-based experiments reveals three configurational pathways, with perceived seriousness necessary across all configurations. (1) Protection-driven approach: with strong protection but no rewards, whistleblowing is mainly triggered by high perceived seriousness. (2) Reward-driven approach: when rewards exist but protection is weak, whistleblowing is more likely among individuals with high perceived seriousness, high risk aversion, strong prosocial motivation, and strong face concern. (3) Policy-independent approach: when both rewards and protection are absent, whistleblowing is more likely among individuals with high perceived seriousness, strong prosocial motivation, and low risk aversion. Asymmetric analysis shows that rewards may increase silence among individuals with high face concern. Key words: Safety Whistleblowing; Reward; Protection; Psychological Profiles; Configurational Pathways; Sensemaking theory