Determinants of Internal Auditors’ Whistleblowing Intentions of Selected Quoted Companies in Nigeria

Abstract

There have been arguments in the whistleblowing literature on whether the internal reporting of corporate wrongdoings should be considered as an internal whistleblowing act, and whether internal auditors should also be regarded as whistleblowers. Despite the fact that internal auditors hold a unique position in their organisations to prevent and detect corporate wrongdoings, the role of this profession in investigating ethical decision-making behaviour has been much neglected. Hence, there is little research concerning internal auditors’ internal whistleblowing intentions in the literature. The purpose of this study is to investigate internal auditors’ internal whistleblowing intentions on corporate wrongdoings in Nigeria. Four research questions and hypotheses were formulated and tested. Twenty selected listed companies were used for the study using purposive sampling technique. One hundred and forty questionnaires were distributed for the study. The questionnaire was the main instrument used for data collection after validity and reliability test. The data collected from the questionnaire were analysed using percentages while the hypotheses were tested using multiple regression tool at 0.05 level of significance. All the null hypotheses were rejected and the alternative hypotheses accepted. The findings showed that organizational factors (ethical climate, size of organisation), individual factors (ethical judgment, locus of control and organizational commitment), situational factors (seriousness of wrongdoers and status of wrongdoers) and demographic factors (gender, age and tenure) are statistically significantly related to internal auditors’ whistleblowing intentions of listed companies in Nigeria.  Suggestions and recommendations were also made to provide basis for the improvement of internal auditors’ function and duties in Nigeria.

Keywords: Internal Auditors, Whistleblowing, Corporate wrongdoings, Corporate Governance.