내부고발에 대한 유교 윤리 및 집단주의 태도의 영향

Whistleblowing and Asian Culture: The Impacts of Confucian Ethics and CollectivismHeung-Sik ParkThis paper reports on the impact of Confucian ethics and collectivism, which are considered as cultural characteristics of Eastern Asian countries, on government employees' attitudes toward support of whistleblowing and their fear of retaliation. Based on the measures of major variables, this study collected data from a total of 344 public officials. Most people in Asia believe that Confucian ethics and collectivism have negative relationships with attitudes toward whistleblowing. However, the results showed that this belief was seldom supported by the data. For instance, the effects of truthfulness of the sovereign and his subjects, as well as the distinction between husband and wife in Confucian ethics, on whistleblowing attitudes were negative as anticipated. However, the effects of confidence between friends in Confucian ethics tended to be the opposite. The study also found that horizontal collectivists support whistleblowing more than vertical individualists. Thus, the results of this study suggest that the relationships between whistleblowing and Confucian ethics, and those between whistleblowing and collectivist attitudes, are not sufficiently simple to be able to conclude that they are negative. Furthermore, the study notes that male-dominated attitudes reflected in the distinction between the roles of husband and wife, as well as a horizontal-vertical distinction between attitudes might be significant variables for explaining attitudes toward whistleblowing.