Abstract:
The act of whistle-blowing can create material benefits for
organisations and society at large, but often at great cost to those
who choose to report unethical or illegal behaviour. This white
paper shares findings from a recent study investigating accounts of
whistle-blowers as well as the views of those who frequently engage
with whistle-blowers. To situate our empirical findings, we report
briefly on academic literature as a series of reflections focusing on
why whistle-blowers elect to report, where they report, how they
are viewed, and the difficulties and consequences they experience
when speaking up. We find that the decision to blow the whistle
is only taken after extensive deliberation, normally including
discussions with senior members of employer organisations.
Despite the inevitable loss of promised confidentiality or
anonymity, whistle-blowers in this study chose to approach
external organisations to flag their concerns. When describing
their organisational experiences before and after blowing the
whistle, many key internal and external actors who form an
integral part of what we term “the whistle-blowing ecosystem”
were identified. We map these in a “whistle-blowing ecosystem”,
and also identify and discuss four organisational themes that
emerged during the study. Moreover, as we move through our
findings, we reflect on the academic literature across key themes.
We conclude by providing recommendations for organisations
seeking to promote ethical conduct.
