| The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the motives for failure to report observed coworkers' misconduct within different organizational settings in the state of Ohio. The qualitative research methods are not good for justification but rather excellent for discovery (Jeongeun & Minhye, 2016). The focus of this phenomenological design was placed on understanding of self-protective motives, defensive silence, and fear from potential consequences if they decide to speak up. Data were extracted from demographic questionnaires and responses collected through the individual face-to-face interviews. Collected data was analyzed by using Braun and Clark (2006) approach and resulted in emerging of several rich and detail themes. Data were descriptive in nature and expressed in percentages when appropriate and applicable. This research method is chosen because participants' feelings, perceptions, reactions, and description of experienced events is beyond purely presented quantitative data. In the past three decades Don Soeken worked with whistle-blowers as an expert witness in court cases and he stated, "The truth-telling part of their brain seems to override the health and safety part, so they will endure all forms of retaliation for the sake of truth" (Soeken, 2014). |
