Koh Ngomong and a Desire to Do Whistleblowing -An Experimental Study

ABSTRACT: Koh Ngomong is the attitude of Balinese who are reluctant to reveal something to maintain harmonization of relations between individuals. However, the presence of social media began to change the attitude of Koh Ngomong, which is especially related to whistleblowing issues. The issues have been taken into people’s attention since several decades ago. The increasing number of organizational violations and massive media coverage in the industrial revolution era 4.0, has made the issues of whistleblowing becoming more interesting. The study aimed to analyze the influence of Koh Ngomong's attitude towards the desire to do whistleblowing. The study also examined the influence of Koh Ngomong's attitude on the tendency of employees to choose internal or external reporting lines. The subjects in this study were students of Master of Accounting, Faculty of Economics and Business, Udayana University-Bali. The subject plays a role as a surrogate of a whistleblower reporting management accountant. The study used a laboratory experiment method with 2x2 factorial designs and between subjects. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used as the analysis tool. The results showed that there was no difference in reporting paths between Koh Ngomong respondents when they became whistleblowers. In conclusion, a suggestion for organizational management is to provide an alternative reporting with the anonymous path to build a complaint service system to ensure the confidentiality and security of the reporter. The trust factor in community life will influence the reporting path for whistleblowers. KEYWORDS: whistleblowing; koh ngomong; line reporting