The mediating role of organizational commitment in the relationship between burnout and whistleblowing: Research on employees of a construction company in Ankara province

In today's globalized and rapidly changing business world, increasing competition, technological advancements, and flexible working arrangements create significant pressure on employees. These pressures lead to the widespread prevalence of burnout syndrome in professional life and test employees' psychological resilience. Burnout manifests itself through dimensions such as emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment, negatively affecting employees' work motivation and commitment. On the other hand, the concept of whistleblowing — defined as employees reporting unethical or illegal activities to the relevant authorities — is of critical importance for organizations in terms of transparency, ethical management, and corporate responsibility. However, whistleblowing also involves various risks and consequences for both employees and organizations. The level of organizational commitment directly affects both the process of burnout and the tendency to engage in whistleblowing behavior. Employees with high commitment levels tend to adopt organizational goals and prefer to resolve problems through internal mechanisms, whereas employees with low commitment levels may become more inclined to blow the whistle under the influence of burnout. This thesis aims to reveal the mediating role of organizational commitment in the relationship between burnout and whistleblowing within the context of private sector employees. In this research, a quantitative method was adopted, and a survey technique was used as the data collection tool. Data were collected via Google Forms from 216 employees working at a private company operating in the construction sector in Ankara. Following the analysis, 10 outliers were excluded. Validated scales were used to measure burnout, whistleblowing, and organizational commitment levels. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 26.0 software; after testing the reliability and validity of the data, the relationships between the variables were evaluated through correlation and regression analyses. As a result of the study, it was found that the burnout levels of the employees in the organization were low, the rate of internal whistleblowing was higher than external whistleblowing, and their organizational commitment levels were high. It has been demonstrated that organizational commitment plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between burnout and whistleblowing. This situation shows that developing strategies to increase employee commitment is a critical element in both reducing burnout levels and managing whistleblowing behaviors. This study contributes to the literature on human resources management, organizational behavior, and business ethics and provides practical guidance for practitioners.