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Whistleblowing - a Thought for Managers

Section of 7,000 word entry on ‘whistleblowing’ by Geoff Hunt in Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics, Academic Press, 1997. For the whole article and related entries please obtain the book in your library.

Protecting and Preventing

All organisations are subject to change, and may improve or deteriorate from an ethical point of view. In those which have not deteriorated too far (implicating senior executives and management) there is always the possibility of managerial initiative to engender openness and internal and external accountability. Staff concerns, which may lead to whistleblowing (public interest disclosure) if ignored, may be treated under certain guiding ethical principles of management. These might include:

• Above all, to consider the concern impartially and establish whether it is true, wholly or in part
• Not to penalise the conscientious employee for raising a concern even if it is false or misguided
• To act on a presumption in favour of genuineness on the part of the employee. Even if malice or ulterior motive should emerge, the truth of the whistleblowers’ claims remain paramount.
• To create positive channels for the expression of concern, such as participatory meetings, exit interviews, rewards for employee vigilance, periodical ethical audits, and open door management
• A readiness to explain and justify to all stakeholders, in a consensus-building spirit, their decisions and actions, for example, around resource allocation.

While from the managerial point of view whistleblowing may be seen as a problem and a threat, from the employee and public point of view it may be unethical and secretive management which is the problem and the threat. For example, environmental dangers created by corporate disregard for public opinion, industrial regulation and law, cannot await the emergence of more whistleblowing martyrs.

Furthermore, in the long term the promotion of ethical management is more likely to deal with the kinds of issues raised by whistleblowers, on the level of practice, procedure, policy and culture than legislation which punishes employers for victimising whistleblowers. Such ‘whistleblower protection’ legislation, which is now to be found, for example at state level in the USA and Australia and in the UK, may play its part in a wider programme of cultural change. However, much of this legislation needs to be amended to shift the onus from the whistleblower, who currently has to justify disclosure (from a presumption in favour of commercial or government confidentiality), to the employer, who should have to justify non-disclosure (gagging) from a presumption in favour of freedom of speech and freedom of information.