Abstract
As the organisations move towards a more competitive world, remaining ethical in the face of challenges is becoming more difficult. Despite the detrimental impact of non-reporting of wrongdoings in organisations, the identification of reasons for non-whistleblowing other than fear of retaliation remains scant. In this study, we explore resignation based non-whistleblowing termed as acquiescent non-whistleblowing. Using 34 in-depth interviews of working professionals and a grounded theory approach, we propose a framework to understand why employees do not report wrongdoings out of a sense of resignation and disengagement. The study unpacks the interaction between organisational systems and supervisors, and the cognitive processes of the employees that result in the failure in reporting wrongdoings, despite existence of formal mechanisms in organisation for whistleblowing. The study identifies the combined effect of compliance or commitment based organisation systems and the influence of leadership style in shaping the cognition of employees resulting in acquiescent non-whistleblowing.