THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL TRUST AND WHISTLEBLOWING TENDENCY: A STUDY ON HEALTH PROFESSIONALS

Abstract

Mistakes made in the health sector can have life-threatening negative consequences. In order to reduce these errors and to identify their sources, whistleblowing is used as an important tool. In this study, it is aimed to determine the relationships between the organizational trust perceptions of health professionals and their whistleblowing tendencies. Quantitative research method and quantitative research design were used in the research. The universe of the research consisted of all health professionals working in a training and research hospital providing secondary health care services in Istanbul. Convenience sampling method was preferred in the study. The data were collected via the internet survey technique (using google forms infrastructure). The total number of questionnaires that were evaluated and used in the analysis of the data is 400. SPSS and AMOS package programs were used in the analysis of the data. Descriptive analysis, correlation analysis and structural equation modeling were applied in the research. The mean whistleblowing tendency of the health professionals participating in the study was found to be 3.84±0.51. When examined in terms of sub-dimensions; the official whistleblowing tendency dimension had the highest mean (4.29±0.73) and the lowest mean (2.47±0.92) was the confidential whistleblowing tendency dimension. According to the results of confirmatory factor analysis, it has been determined that there is a positive relationship between the organizational trust perceptions of health professionals and their whistleblowing tendencies, and the organizational trust perceptions of health professionals affect their attitudes towards whistleblowing tendencies in a statistically significant and positive way. This study is important in that health professionals can report negative situations and then reduce the negative situations that may happen due to being a whistleblower and create an organizational trust environment that will turn into a corporate culture.