Mindsets and Grit: Two New Lenses to Anticipate the Individuals' Whistleblowing Intentions

ABSTRACT Scholars unanimously recognize the importance of whistleblowing as one of the effective measures to promote accountability and transparency in society. Though extant literature is rich in a multitude of factors affecting whistleblowing intentions of employees, yet no study has investigated the effects of mindset types and grit levels of employees on whistleblowing intentions. This article bridges this research gap and presents two new lenses for the stakeholders to understand better the effects of mindset types and the grit level of employees on their whistleblowing intentions. It also investigates and supports the moderating role of grit on the dyad of growth mindset and internal whistleblowing intentions. The hypotheses of the study have been empirically analyzed employing the SEM technique using SPSS and AMOS. Primary quantitative data have been collected using survey questionnaires from the students and faculty members of seven universities in Pakistan. Research findings suggest that the mindset types and grit levels of potential whistleblowers are different from those of silent observers. The whistleblowers possess a growth mindset and have a higher level of grit, which urges them to take risky and challenging tasks like whistleblowing.