Whistleblowing in Social Organizations: Insights into the Effects of Governance Absorption on the Durability of Social Work Organizations

Background: Research indicates that government-and-social work organization relationships critically influence social work organizations, and the professionals can trigger changes. Currently, government-and- social work organization relationships are characterized largely by governance absorption, with the government extracting from the social work organizations to achieve collaborative governance. However, previous research lacks an examination of the explanation of governance absorption and its three dimensions. Specifically, whether governance absorption is beneficial to social work organizations’ durability, and what role professionals play, still need to be explored. This study used a collaborative governance perspective to construct a conceptual framework of governance absorption, the professionals’ role, and the social work organizations’ durability.

Methods: Using the China Social Work Dynamics Survey (CSWLS2019) data, this study selected 746 social work organizations nested in 56 cities. In terms of control factors, this study considered both institutional-level and city-level factors. This study employed a two-step process analysis using multilevel regression analysis that examined the impact of governance absorption on the social work organizations’ durability and the moderating effect of professionals.

Results: The results showed that social work organizations largely accepted governance absorption, but their durability and professionals were at low levels. The analysis indicated first that all three types of governance absorption––ideological absorption (β=0.459***), administrative absorption (β=0.517***), and strategic resource absorption (β=0.526**) ––have significantly positive effects on social work organizations’ durability; second, in different dimensions of their durability, professionals can significantly strengthen or weaken the effects of governance absorption. Therefore, (1) governance absorption can promote the durability of social work organizations, and (2) professionals can moderate the relationship and play a whistleblowing role.

Implications: The study’s theoretical implications are that governance absorption demonstrates an imbalance in the interacting subjects, and that the social work organizations’ professionals can play a key moderating role in unbalanced collaborative relationships. Furthermore, this study reveals that governance is a more appropriate framework for analyzing government-and-social work organization relationships. In its practical implications, the study suggests that governments and social work organizations should keep using governance absorption to promote their collaborations, and the findings highlight the importance of professionals in the relationships between governance absorption and social work organizations, thus suggesting that they can use their profession to play a whistleblowing role.