What Makes Someone a Whistleblower?

What Makes Someone a Whistleblower?

The whistleblower is a curious character: in his most publicized incarnations he is set on a pedestal and pelted with abuse.  Why does someone take on such a role?  Over the past three decades, social scientists have developed and tested a wide variety of sometimes conflicting explanations for why someone decides to blow the whistle after witnessing a wrong.

Some possible explanations are specific to the individual:

-          Whistleblowers tend to have good job performance reviews, to be more highly educated, to hold higher level positions, and to score higher on tests of moral reasoning[1] (although some found otherwise[2])

-          But no demographic variables, such as gender and age, are significant predictors of whistleblowing[3]

-          Nor is job satisfaction related to whistleblowing[4]

-          Whistleblowers tend to show more individual initiative and to generally have a good mood (“positive affectivity”)[5]

-          Courage and integrity can encourage whistleblowing in the face of wrongs[6]

-          Some people think that whistleblowers have a broader sense of empathy than average person; they are guided by sense of morality they can’t put on shelf; and their morality doesn’t change with circumstances[7]

-          But ethical beliefs are not strong indicators of reporting[8]

The nature of the wrong can affect whether an observer chooses to blow the whistle on wrongdoers:

-          Serious violations are more likely to elicit whistleblowing responses[9]

-          The type of wrongdoing may affect willingness to blow whistle – for example, legal violations are more likely to be disclosed than theft[10]

-          Whistleblowing can result from an accumulation of outrageous misdeeds[11]

Individuals follow any of a number of decision processes before becoming whistleblowers:

-          They might conduct reasoned cost-benefit analyses[12], where benefits include things like financial rewards, praise from others, and enhanced self-esteem

-          They might seek changes in organizational policies as “policy entrepreneurs”[13]

-          They might act based on prosocial motivations to benefit others[14]

-          They might want those who are affected to know about the wrong[15]

-          Some people argue that when loyalty to the organization is no longer required, whistleblowing is not just permissible but expected when a company is harming society[16]

-          While most individuals think that they would resist directions to do wrong and would become whistleblowers if they observe wrongdoing, experiments strongly contradict those predictions[17]

-          Rather than reasoned weighing of pros and cons to whistleblowing, moral compulsion could be their driving force[18]

-          Whistleblowers may find themselves faced by a “choiceless choice”[19] – a lifetime of experiences, mentors, and reflections leads them to think that their only real choice is to blow the whistle

-          Despite all the reasons for remaining silent, they are dominated by a “moral stubbornness”:  they cannot choose to remain silent; their consciences allow them no other course[20]

-          Their pretension of morality serves only to veil their moral narcissism[21]

Rather than being driven by a single factor, whistleblowing can arise from interactions between individual and his situation:

-          If the organization has an ethical culture, whistleblowing may come easier[22]

-          Role-related responsibilities, such as being an internal auditor, can encourage disclosures[23]

-          Higher level managers are more likely to blow the whistle[24]

-          Whistleblowers have lower fear of reprisals from their employers[25]

-          Emotions, such as anger and guilt, can trigger whistleblowing[26], even when they are anticipated emotions (like after whistleblowing or inaction)[27]

-          If an individual suggests a corrective action during the course of performing his job duties, he may experience criticism, ostracism, and other soft retaliations that anger him and lead to escalating disclosures and retaliations[28]

-          The frustrations felt by the individual and by the company can trigger aggressive responses on either side[29]

To listen to their former employers, whistleblowers are just problem cases: they are disgruntled people who are unable to team with fellow employees; they are insubordinate and disrespectful of others; their performance is poor; they commit wrongs themselves; and they only want to harm the organization.

Borrowing thoughts from Hertsgaard, Henik, and Alford and drawing on my own experience with the eight incidents of alleged wrongs and tepid corrective actions at HomeFirst, I suggest a different explanation for the whistleblower:

Observers of organizational wrongdoing become whistleblowers when they have had enough of fighting for their own standing and against the power of the organization that denies them their promised rewards.

I contend that wrongdoing goes on all the time in every organization.  For much of his career, the employee thinks that he does, or will, benefit from what goes on, but eventually he finds that his reward falls short of what he expected.  Others might win, but he will not – at least not as much as he had hoped.  He recognizes that power is aligned against him, he can be fired for no good reason, the organization’s grandiose visions are empty, and his loyalty means nothing.  At that point, the lies and ethical conflicts that he had tolerated begin to eat at him.  He and others may praise the morality of his disclosure, but he stands up first for his own power.

The alert individual can become a whistleblower at just about any time in his career.  Dozens of times during a working life, he will be in the right place at the right time, he will compute the cost-benefit analyses, the wrong will be clear and offensive, but he will remain silent.  The time may come, though, when he says, enough, I have had enough. 

The whistleblowing that results will not be simply about the wrong; it will also be about powerful forces that have always been able to commit wrongs readily and without consequence.

---

[1] Mesmer-Magnus, Jessica R. and Chockalingam Viswesvaran. “Whistleblowing in Organizations: An Examination of Correlates of Whistleblowing Intentions, Actions, and Retaliation.” Journal of Business Ethics 62 (2005): 277–297

[2] Miceli, Marcia P., Janet P. Near and Charles R. Schwenk.  “Who Blows the Whistle and Why?”  Industrial and Labor Relations Review.  45.1 (October 1991): 113-130

[3] Cassematis, P. G. and R. Wortley. “Prediction of Whistleblowing or Non-reporting Observation.” Journal of Business Ethics 117 (2013): 615-634

[4] Cassematis and Wortley

[5] Cassematis and Wortley.  Near, Janet P., Michael T. Rehg, James R. Van Scotter and Marcia P. Miceli.  “Does Type of Wrongdoing Affect the Whistle-Blowing Process?” Business Ethics Quarterly 14.2 (April 2004): 219-242.  Miceli, Marcia P., James R. Van Scotter, Janet P. Near, and Michael T. Rehg.  “Individual Differences and Whistle-Blowing.”  Academy of Management Proceedings 2001 PNP.

[6] Duska, Ronald. “Integrity and Moral Courage” Journal of Financial Service Professionals (January 2013): 20-22

[7] Hertsgaard, Mark.  Bravehearts: Whistle-Blowing in the Age of Snowden.  New York: Hot Books. 2016

[8] Miethe, Terance D.  Whistleblowing at Work.  Boulder, CO: Westview Press.  1999

[9] Cassematis and Wortley.  Miceli, Marcia P., Janet P. Near, and Terry Morehead Dworkin. Whistle-blowing in Organizations. New York: Rutledge. 2008

[10] Near, Rehg, Van Scotter, and Miceli

[11] Hertsgaard

[12] Keil, Mark, Amrit Tiwana, Robert Sainsbury and Sweta Sneha. “Toward a Theory of Whistleblowing Intentions: A Benefit-to-Cost Differential Perspective.” Decision Sciences. 41.4 (November 2010): 787-812

[13] Johnson, Roberta Ann. Whistleblowing: When It Works and Why. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers. 2003

[14] Miceli, Near, and Schwenk

[15] Hertsgaard

[16] Duska, Ronald. “Whistleblowing and Employee Loyalty.” In Contemporary Issues in Business Ethics. DesJardins, Joseph R. and John J. McCall (eds.) Belmont, California: Wadsworth Publishing Company. 1985

[17] Bocchiaro, Piero, Philip G. Zimbardo and Paul A.M. Van Lange.  “To Defy or Not to Defy: An Experimental Study of the Dynamics of Disobedience and Whistle-blowing.” Social Influence. 7.1 (2012): 35-50.  Milgram, Stanley. Obedience to Authority. New York: Harper & Row. 1974

[18] Johnson

[19] Alford, C. Fred. Whistleblowers: Broken Lives and Organizational Power. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University. 2001

[20] Hertsgaard

[21] Alford

[22] Kaptein, Muel. “From Inaction to External Whistleblowing: The Influence of Ethical Culture of Organizations on Employee Responses to Observed Wrongdoing.” Journal of Business Ethics 98.3 (2011): 513 - 530

[23] Mesmer-Magnus and Viswesvaran

[24] Keenan, John P.  “Whistleblowing: A Study of Managerial Differences.”  Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal 14.1 (March 2002): 17-32

[25] Cassematis and Wortley

[26] Edwards, Marissa S., Neal M. Ashkanasy and John Gardner. “Deciding to Speak Up or to Remain Silent Following Observed Wrongdoing: The Role of Discrete Emotions and Climate of Silence.” In Voice and Silence in Organizations. Greenberg, J. and Edwards, M. (eds.).  Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing  2009: 83-109.  Henik, Erika Gail. “Mad as Hell or Scared Stiff? The Effects of Value Conflict and Emotions on Potential Whistle-Blowers.” Journal of Business Ethics.  80 (2008): 111-119.  Hollings, James. “Let the Story Go:  The Role of Emotion in the Decision-Making Process of the Reluctant, Vulnerable Witness or Whistleblower.”  Journal of Business Ethics. 114 (2013): 501-512

[27] Edwards, Ashkanasy and Gardner.

[28] Rehg, Michael T. “Retaliation against Whistleblowers: An Integration and Typology.” Journal of Academy of Business and Economics. 11.3 (May 2011)

[29] Dollard, John, Leonard W. Doob, Neal E. Miller, O.H. Mower and Robert R. Sears. “Frustration and Aggression.” In When Men Revolt and Why. James Chowning Davies (ed.) New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers. 1997