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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Serie: Wiley Finance Editions
- Sprache: Englisch
Choose the best speak-up arrangements for your organisation The last five years have seen dramatic and fundamental changes in whistleblower procedures for organisations. Prompted by a spate of important public disclosures, organizations are now mandated by law to implement effective arrangements enabling employees to speak up about perceived wrongdoing. Currently few resources exist to help with this. To help fill the gap, The Whistleblowing Guide examines the opportunities and challenges associated with different types of whistleblowing and speak-up arrangements, making recommendations based on best practices you can trust. * Identifies the major organisational, structural and cultural obstacles to speaking up through speak-up arrangements * Proposes effective whistleblowing and speak-up arrangements * Explains the specific policy and legislation requirements that can promote or impede the effective implementation of speak-up arrangements, and how these can be translated into commercial and public organizations across sectors and cultures * Makes a clear distinction between internal and external reporting arrangements The Whistleblowing Guide offers conceptual clarification about these key issues, including a focus on internal and external speak-up procedures, organisational response and communication, impartiality and trust.
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Table of Contents
Cover
About the Companion Website
CHAPTER 1: Introduction: The Importance of Speak‐up Arrangements
SPEAKING UP IN ORGANIZATIONS
SPEAK UP ARRANGEMENTS: A NEW PERSPECTIVE FOR THEORY AND PRACTICE
SUSTAINABLE SPEAK‐UP SYSTEMS: A MODEL
RATIONALE
WHO SHOULD READ THIS BOOK?
PURPOSE OF THE BOOK
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
ABOUT THE BOOK
ENDNOTES
CHAPTER 2: Why Speak‐up Systems: Why Now?
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND: WHY SPEAK‐UP SYSTEMS, WHY NOW?
ENDNOTES
CHAPTER 3: A Comparative Study of Speak‐up Arrangements in Banking, Engineering, and Healthcare Sectors
INTRODUCTION
BANKING
ENGINEERING
HEALTHCARE
CONCLUSION
ENDNOTES
CHAPTER 4: Challenges and Obstacles to Effective Speak‐up Arrangements
HOW DO PEOPLE SPEAK UP?
WHISTLEBLOWING IS A PROTRACTED PROCESS
WHAT EXPECTATIONS DO SPEAK‐UPS ENTAIL?
CHALLENGES OF OPERATING SPEAK‐UP ARRANGEMENTS
BARRIERS TO RESPONSIVENESS
STRATEGIES FOR TRUSTWORTHINESS (AND THEIR POTENTIAL PITFALLS)
FACILITATORS OF RESPONSIVENESS
USING SPEAK‐UP DATA
BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER: A MODEL FOR DEVELOPING SUSTAINABLE SPEAK‐UP SYSTEMS
CONCLUSION
ENDNOTES
CHAPTER 5: Speak‐up Procedures: A Guide for Professionals
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
BENEFITS OF EFFECTIVE SPEAK‐UP ARRANGEMENTS:
RECOMMENDATIONS
ENDNOTES
CHAPTER 6: Conclusions
ACADEMIC LITERATURE
EMPIRICAL WORK
A FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING SPEAK‐UP ARRANGEMENTS
PRACTICAL RELEVANCE AND RECOMMENDATIONS
ENDNOTES
Bibliography
APPENDIX 1: Speak‐up Arrangements – Key Theories
EMPLOYEE VOICE
FEARLESS SPEECH—FOUCAULT 2001, 2010
TRUST—MöLLERING 2013
ETHICAL CULTURE—KAPTEIN 2011
INTERACTIONAL COMMUNICATION—WATZLAWICK ET AL. 1967
ENDNOTE
APPENDIX 2: Project Methodology
SAMPLE AND DATA COLLECTION
ANALYSIS
ENDNOTES
APPENDIX 3: Other Resources
TEACHING AND LEARNING RESOURCES
ONLINE RESOURCES
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 4
TABLE 4.1 Kaptein's Findings
TABLE 4.2 Number of times a whistleblower raises the concern (
n
= 868).
TABLE 4.3 Internal and external whistleblowing.
TABLE 4.4 Centralisation of speak‐up data in the three organizations
TABLE 4.5 Strategies for building trust
List of Illustrations
Chapter 3
FIGURE 3.1 Chart showing the increase in GDP represented by financial sector...
FIGURE 3.2 Chart showing the changes due to economic downturn.
Chapter 4
FIGURE 4.1 Frequency series of recipients per attempt (in rounded percentages
FIGURE 4.2 Organizational feedback loop when responding to a whistleblower
FIGURE 4.3 Information about wrongdoing and about responses in whistleblowing
FIGURE 4.4 Sustainable Speak-up Systems: A Model
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
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The Whistleblowing Guide
Speak-up Arrangements, Challenges and Best Practices
KATE KENNY
WIM VANDEKERCKHOVE
MARIANNA FOTAKI
This edition first published 2019
© 2019 Kate Kenny, Wim Vandekerckhove, and Marianna Fotaki
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Module Outline
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Cheat Sheet
Case Studies
CHAPTER 1Introduction: The Importance of Speak‐up Arrangements
SPEAKING UP IN ORGANIZATIONS
Recent years have seen dramatic and fundamental changes in whistleblower procedures for organizations. Prompted by a spate of important public disclosures, organizations are now mandated by law in various countries to implement effective arrangements enabling employees to speak up about perceived wrongdoing. Yet few resources exist to help with this. To fill the gap, this book examines the opportunities and challenges associated with different types of whistleblowing arrangements (often called speak‐up systems), and makes recommendations based on best practice. Our proposed model for the effective development of sustainable speak‐up systems is rigorously grounded in new, empirical, international research, in a variety of organizational settings along with existing academic literature on the issue.
Whistleblowing forms a key means of addressing dangerous wrongdoing and illegal behaviour in today's organizations. The absence of effective speak‐up arrangements prevents organizations and societies from avoiding major disasters. Attempts to alert the authorities to wrongdoing by internal personnel are currently on the increase. However, in many cases, suffering and retaliation experienced by whistleblowers is exacerbated because few if any procedures are in place to receive and follow up on concerns raised by employees. Even when systems are in place, they are often bypassed, and the whistleblower is silenced or over‐ruled, as was the case in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the collapse of Enron, and the nuclear meltdown after the Fukushima earthquake, for example.1 Whistleblowing has become an important issue, both for societies, as well as for organizations.
Speak‐up arrangements can have economic benefits for organizations and society. They also save money both for private and public sector organizations. A recent study of over 5,000 firms shows that 40% of companies surveyed suffered from serious economic crimes that averaged over $3 million each in losses. Whistleblowers exposed 43% of these crimes, which means that whistleblowing was more effective than all the other measures combined: corporate security, internal audits, and law enforcement.2 Workers who voice their concern can help to prevent the dysfunctional behaviour that leads to financial and reputational losses by firms and public sector organizations. Ineffective speak‐up arrangements, however, limit their ability to do this, and ultimately harm the organization as well as the whistleblower.
The question of how to develop effective speak‐up arrangements has become urgent. There is increased media attention for whistleblowers, and policy‐makers across the world have lobbied to pass legislation protecting whistleblowers. Although legislation is essential for encouraging speaking up against wrongdoing, it has also drawn our attention to the missing link—that of the organization and its internal arrangements in place for making disclosures. Hence, implementing effective speak‐up arrangements is now a vital part of reforming corporate governance, public sector accountability, and professional responsibility. With this book, we hope to contribute to the success of these reforms.
Until now, whistleblowing has mainly been researched from the point of view of the whistleblower. Our research is innovative because it provides insights into speaking‐up from the perspective of those who operate the speak‐up arrangements.
SPEAK UP ARRANGEMENTS: A NEW PERSPECTIVE FOR THEORY AND PRACTICE
This book offers valuable contributions for academic researchers, professional audiences and managers. It is unique because, unlike other studies and guides, it focuses on the context as well as the organization. We find that these aspects, including legislation cultural norms and economic structures, significantly influence the ways in which speak‐up systems are implemented and used ‘on the ground’. Our analytic framing allows us to encompass both this ‘macro’ focus but also a micro‐level examination of how such systems are used in the day‐to‐day activities of those tasked with receiving disclosures.
We find that existing studies of speak‐up arrangements are somewhat limited in that they simplify what are, in reality, complex organizational dynamics. The linear, process‐oriented models proposed by many scholars fail to capture the fact that speak‐up attempts are made in organizational settings in which business‐as‐usual continues, even when operators are trying to deal with disclosures. Real‐life speak‐ups rarely if ever progress in a simple fashion: from disclosure, to remedy, to sanction of the wrongdoer. Our research highlights how attempts to achieve each stage are, in practice, made against a backdrop of organizational norms and structures that can represent obstacles to the successful disclosure and resolution of wrongdoing. Moreover, where substantial attempts to remedy a wrongdoing are poorly managed, this can generate paralysis across the organization as an investigation proceeds.
This book also encompasses rich background detail on three important sectors of the economy, currently under the spotlight in the area of speak‐up systems not least because of recent scandals: financial services, healthcare and engineering. It includes multinational and national perspectives and examples from both public and private sectors.
Through our analysis of practices across a variety of organizational settings, we offer novel and important insights into commonly misunderstood aspects of internal whistleblowing. We show, for example, how a lack of response, or silence, by the person who receives a disclosure, can be misunderstood by the person speaking up. The person can interpret this as a lack of interest in the wrongdoing, or worse, an indication of their impending marginalization by the organization. This situation is not uncommon. Thus, the onus is on the organization to instill and maintain a culture of responsiveness among managers tasked with receiving speak‐ups.
In summary, implementing sustainable speak‐up systems in organizations is more complex and intricate than often thought. It involves an intersection of human, technological and organizational dynamics that impact on each other in many ways, through the introduction and use of such arrangements. Radically new perspectives are needed to understand these aspects and to apply them successfully in our organizations. Our research shows how a speak‐up arrangement can be implemented successfully. This can be done to ensure retaliation against whistleblowers is minimized, while speak‐up operators provide effective and timely feedback to those who raise concerns. Moreover, by showing how speak‐up operators attempt to overcome obstacles, we highlight the vital role trust plays for building a culture of openness and transparency in their organizations.
Through the detailed analysis we provide, our study is unusual in that it distills best‐practice recommendations by combining both empirical analysis and a detailed review of the relevant literature on the topic, a strategy that enables us to develop a unique and valuable framework by which to understand speak‐up arrangements in contemporary organizations.
SUSTAINABLE SPEAK‐UP SYSTEMS: A MODEL
This book brings together a variety of perspectives to create a model for the development of sustainable speak‐up systems. The key success factors in achieving this are independence, responsiveness, and time. Each of these is explained more fully later in this book.
Independence:
The independence of the speak‐up recipient is key. Employees are more likely to speak up to a recipient that is removed from the wrongdoing.
Responsiveness:
Employees must perceive that their report is being acted on, for speak‐up arrangements to work. There are sometimes barriers to how responsive the organization can be.
Time:
The preferred channel for speaking up can change with time, as employees get used to the systems that are in place.
To enable independence, to enhance responsiveness, and to support speak‐up systems over time, certain contextual features must be present. These are ethical culture and trust.
Ethical culture describes the environment inside an organization that enables and constrains various types of whistleblowing. Kaptein's work in this area for example shows how culture has an impact on how employees speak up, and to whom, whereas Roberts and colleagues show how these dynamics can enhance the success of speak‐up systems. As a result of the analysis developed throughout this book, we add trust to this vital aspect. Trust needs to be created in the organization implementing the systems but it must also be maintained over time. For successful speak‐ups, whistleblowers and speak‐up operators have to make a ‘leap of faith’ and act on uncertain knowledge. Throughout this book we detail strategies for creating this trust, which include empathy with the whistleblower, and providing a choice of interfaces for the whistleblower to choose from. We also detail strategies for maintaining trust including communications regarding investigations that emerge from speak‐ups and the relevant steps, along with operator independence. We describe an important aspect of this framework: the success factors of effective speak‐up and the organizational contextual factors that support these are mutually constitutive—this means that the presence of each supports and reinforces the other. In summary, our model of sustainable speak‐up systems encompasses the importance of independence, responsiveness and time, and of considering how these intertwine with trust and ethical culture.
RATIONALE
This book is timely. It is vital to study the ways in which whistleblowing/speak‐up arrangements are deployed in contemporary organizations, today more than ever, for the following reasons:
Changes in legislation
. There has been a significant shift towards encouraging effective speak‐up arrangements in organizations. For example, the OECD has published guidelines for protecting whistleblowers,
3
the Council of Europe published recommendations for Europe‐wide whistleblower protection,
4
the European Commission proposed a directive to protect individuals that speak up on breaches of EU law.
5
Laws are currently under review in New Zealand and Australia, and several African countries have proposed legislative initiatives.
6
Industry and sectoral regulators are also increasingly mandating the organizations they regulate to put such measures in place for the internal disclosure of information, and are simultaneously restructuring their own organizations in ways that enable the receipt of information through external disclosures. Internal and external whistleblowing is defined more thoroughly in Chapter 2, but generally refers to disclosing to a member inside the organization or outside the organization respectively. An example comes from the Netherlands; organizations with at least 50 employees are required to have confidential integrity advisors to take disclosures in organizations, although the scope of their role is left intentionally vague,7 and the House of the Whistleblower has been formed to take external disclosures as well.8
From an external perspective, both the FCA and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in the UK now have dedicated whistleblowing teams registering and following‐up whistleblower concerns raised with them. In the United States, a recent Supreme Court judgement has had the effect that whistleblowers are now required to disclose externally to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to benefit from the protections under the Dodd‐Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd‐Frank) (see Box 1.1). Organizations that wish to encourage internal reporting, then, must have robust disclosure and support systems in place to encourage and facilitate those that wish to speak up. To date, fewer than 30% of organizations have speak‐up systems in place, so significant change will be required. Whistleblower protection legislation is currently being drafted at the EU level, for example, guaranteeing that workers in member states will have a minimum level of protection.9
BOX 1.1 WHISTLEBLOWING REWARDS IN THE UNITED STATES—DIGITAL REALTY TRUST INC. V. SOMERS
In February 2018, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that protections in the Dodd‐Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act 2010 (Dodd‐ Frank) only applied to whistleblowers who made external disclosures to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The SEC had previously interpreted the definition of whistleblower widely, allowing those that had made disclosures externally as well as those that had reported internally to avail of the protections under the Dodd‐Frank Act. Paul Somers, a manager at Digital Reality Trust, Inc., spoke up to senior managers about his boss hiding millions of dollars in costs that were over the budget, and Somers was fired in 2014. While lower courts agreed with Somers, the Supreme Court overruled the decision. Whistleblowers in the United States who speak up internally are now only covered by the protections in the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act (2002) (SOX). Although SOX still protects whistleblowers against retaliation, they now have a shorter timeframe to bring a lawsuit and are entitled to less compensation than they would be if they brought a case under Dodd‐Frank.10The Government Accountability Project, the whistleblower advocacy organization in the United States, immediately called for revision in the law saying,
For whistleblowers, it strips Dodd Frank legal protection against retaliation for the 96 percent of corporate whistleblowers who never break company ranks. For corporations, it forces employees to go behind the company's back and run to the government whenever they see internal misconduct. Otherwise there will be no legal rights. For the SEC, it will mean a tidal wave of new investigative work if employees can no longer safely work through corporate ranks to challenge illegality. Congress never intended this result, and must act quickly to clarify poorly written statutory language. Otherwise corporate dysfunction will replace corporate accountability.11
Whistleblowing forms a key means of addressing dangerous wrongdoing and dysfunctional behaviour in today's organizations
. The absence of effective speak‐up arrangements prevents organizations and societies from avoiding major disasters.
12
For this reason, whistleblowing has become an important issue, both for societies as well as for organizations. Attempts to alert the authorities to wrongdoing by internal personnel are currently increasing. In healthcare for example, whistleblowing to the media led to the Public Inquiry into the Mid‐Staffordshire Hospital Trust, and an enduring stream of NHS whistleblower cases triggered the
Freedom to Speak Up Review
.
13
In Ireland, the treatment and attempted silencing of a whistleblower in An Garda Síochána (the Irish police force) led to the Charleton tribunal, which is still ongoing at the time of writing. In the wake of the financial crisis, in the United States the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) received 3,620 cases through whistleblower disclosures in the fiscal year 2014, up 10% from 2013, and 21% compared to 2012,
14
and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) shows a generally increasing trend from 2007 to the present.
15
In the UK, reports to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have increased significantly over the past few years.
16
Ineffective speak‐up arrangements lead to suffering by whistleblowers
. Over 30 years of research shows us that although the logic of democratic institutions is dependent upon courageous individuals speaking up to publicize wrongdoing
17
such individuals are often, paradoxically, ostracized and retaliated against for disclosures that aim to counteract corruption and protect the public interest.
18
In many cases, suffering and retaliation were exacerbated because few if any procedures were in place to facilitate disclosure. Speak‐up arrangements must focus on protecting the individual, as a first priority, and in‐depth research is required to determine best practice for developing effective processes and structures.
Effective speak‐up arrangements have economic benefits for organizations and society
. Whistleblowing is important from a societal and an ethical perspective, but it also saves money both for private and public sector organizations. Such disclosures can help to prevent the illegal behaviour that leads to financial and reputational losses by firms and public sector organizations.
19
As mentioned earlier, whistleblowers exposed economic crimes that averaged over $3 million in losses for companies that corporate security, internal audit and law enforcement were not able to detect.
20
The absence of effective measures means that organizations and institutions are denied an opportunity to address the wrongdoing that whistleblowers perceive, early on in the process, and thus lose time, money and effort by having to engage in protracted and unnecessary legal battles.
WHO SHOULD READ THIS BOOK?
Managers in contemporary organizations who must implement speak‐up arrangements
. The book is a practical resource for use by managers who implement speak‐up procedures because it offers advice on creating effective procedures for speaking up when wrongdoing is observed. This advice is also useful for managers who are seeking to enhance existing speak‐up arrangements. It will also appeal to policy‐makers internationally who despite actively advocating the use of speak‐up arrangements have little empirical research upon which to draw. Readers from these groups will learn about effective procedures that enable whistleblowers to remain protected while disclosing information and explaining how to militate against the kinds of retaliations previously experienced by this group. Other readers include regulators who encourage such changes, professional bodies who advise their members on implementing and using speak‐up arrangements, trade unions and other organizations who play a role in conflict mediation, and academics.
Organizations that regularly engage with whistleblowers
. Readers from these groups will learn how to offer evidence‐based advice on how to effectively raise concerns through speak‐up arrangements, making whistleblowers able to more effectively disclose information to both organizations internally and regulators if needed.
Policy‐makers, public representatives, and professional bodies involved in whistleblower procedures
. This group includes Parliamentary Select Committees, ‘prescribed persons’ under country‐specific legislation, including regulators, and professional bodies along with the advocacy groups that are actively engaging with organizations to implement speak‐up arrangements, for example. These readers will become better informed about this key issue, which will help them make appropriate decisions about how to best to support whistleblowers and how to advise organizations.
Academics
. This book integrates conceptual work on the nature of speak‐up arrangements and the factors that contribute to their effectiveness, including the theoretical framework outlined earlier. Currently, little is known about the complex factors that enhance effective speak‐up arrangements. Deeper understanding is required to enhance knowledge in this area and inform policy debates. This book is a first step in this direction and academic readers will learn the basics of speak‐up arrangements so they can build on it with future research.
PURPOSE OF THE BOOK
After reading this book, readers will be able to:
Identify the major organizational, structural, and cultural obstacles to speaking up through speak‐up arrangements, in their own organizations.
As detailed in this book, obstacles include employees' lack of awareness about such procedures, a lack of training and experience in how to use the internal/external procedures, expectations of inaction from previous experiences, and middle managers' risk aversion in effectively addressing issues, despite being the first recipients of whistleblower concerns.
Propose effective whistleblowing and speak‐up arrangements in their organizations.
This involves an understanding of the significance of culture, power, responsiveness, and trust in the implementation and use of a successful speak‐up procedure, along with the organizational changes required to design and implement these.
Understand the specific policy and legislation requirements that can promote or impede the effective implementation of speak‐up arrangements
, and how these can be translated into commercial and public organizations across sectors and cultures.
Distinguish between internal and external reporting arrangements
. The book offers information and clarification on key issues, including the distinction between internal and external speak‐up procedures, which is in practice somewhat blurred.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
The book benefits from the significant experience of its three authors in the area of whistleblowing research, in the public sector (Vandekerckhove), health and social care (Fotaki), and banking and financial services (Kenny). All authors have significant expertise in researching and writing about the topic of whistleblowing and speaking out: Kate Kenny carried out an in‐depth study into whistleblowing in banking and finance organizations in the UK, Ireland, Switzerland, and the United States, with a focus on compliance and risk officers.21 She has assisted Public Concern at Work (now Protect), the Financial Conduct Authority and Transparency International Ireland on their whistleblowing research and communications. Her publications draw on critical and psychosocial theories to develop new perspectives on whistleblowing.22 Her recent collaborative work focuses on postdisclosure survival strategies of whistleblowers across a variety of sectors. Wim Vandekerckhove was the lead in a qualitative research study on the implementation of whistleblowing arrangements in the NHS for the Freedom to Speak Up Review,23 and carried out research on Belgian public and private sector whistleblowing arrangements for a Transparency International country report on Belgium.24 He has also collaborated with Public Concern at Work (now Protect) on the analysis of 1,000 cases from their whistleblower helpline.25 He has provided expertise to the Council of Europe, the Dutch Whistleblower Authority, and Transparency International on a number of occasions as well. He is currently involved in committees developing a whistleblowing standard with the British Standards Institute and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Marianna Fotaki has worked on the role of internal auditors as internal whistleblowers in government agencies in Indonesia, with an internal auditor seconded into the project funded by the World Bank.26 She has also worked as the EU advisor for governments of Russia, Armenia, and Georgia on governance of Social Security, health, and public policy for 10 years in total. Fotaki has been involved in various projects on the impact of introducing market incentives on the quality of healthcare systems in the NHS in England and how the pressure to produce savings by management affects health staff's behaviour leading to widespread patient abuse and the systematic perversion of care.27 More recently, she advised the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and helped developing ethics modules for the Education for Justice (E4J) initiative.28 Marianna is a member of the Academic Board of Academy of Business in Society (ABIS) and co‐directs pro‐bono with the Centre for Health and the Public Interest. She is also involved with the European Business Ethics Network (EBEN).
In addition to research focus, each author brings academic expertise:
Vandekerckhove brings expertise in comparative studies of the institutional dimensions of whistleblowing procedures and legislation; Fotaki brings expertise in health with a focus on mental health, psychoanalytic, and psychosocial approaches, along with a specific focus on business ethics and public governance. This complements Kenny's expertise on whistleblowing and organizational culture and identity, with a focus on the banking and finance sector, all of which are essential for the purpose of this project. We have and continue to work with key organizations in this area: the Government Accountability Project (US), Transparency International (Ireland, Belgium and Berlin) and Whistleblowers UK.
Finally we would like to thank Research Assistants Meghan Van Portfliet and Didem Derya Ozdemir for their invaluable help on this project.'
ABOUT THE BOOK
Chapter 2 begins with a discussion of how law‐makers and organizations are increasingly requiring that speak‐up arrangements be implemented, and what implications this has for whistleblowers where there is no encouragement or support for them to speak up, highlighting retaliation as one of the possible consequences. We then consider the existing literature and use it to debunk several myths. We show that whistleblowing is a process and not a one‐off event by presenting data that shows whistleblowers make multiple disclosures to increasingly independent recipients. Additionally, we show that internal and external whistleblowing are not separate occurrences, but are usually part of the same process.
Next, we introduce some theoretical ideas from the literature: we examine the research on employee voice because whistleblowing can be understood as an act of employees using this capacity in their organizations to speak up about wrongdoings. We debunk the traditional myths from several research streams and show how the focus on motivation for speaking up is less important than the fact that it happens in organizations. This act of speaking up has been researched using the concept of fearless speech (parrhesia), which we also examine to describe and highlight the importance of the hearer of speak‐ups. We then link this fearless speech to concepts of trust: between the employee and the organization, and in interpersonal connections. We next examine empirical research that has been carried out in organizations that have implemented speak‐up systems and note some key findings including the importance of an internal champion for the initiative to succeed.
Chapter 3 draws on existing literature and primary research carried out by the authors (which was generously funded by ACCA and ESRC) to present three case studies of whistleblowing in the finance, engineering, and health sectors. A full outline of the study's methods is given in the Appendix. This research is important because there are few empirical studies into this topic.29 The case studies are based on research that was conducted in different organizational and geographical cultural settings. These include (1) implementing speak‐up arrangements at an NHS Trust (UK, public sector); (2) implementing speak‐up arrangements at an engineering multinational firm (UK and multiple continents, private sector); and (3) implementing speak‐up arrangements at a leading retail bank (UK and Ireland, private sector).
The chapter starts with a discussion of the banking sector, illustrating the pervasiveness of a culture of silence that exists in such organizations. Reasons for this silence are identified, which include failure to investigate claims, retaliation against voicing employees and social isolation of voicing employees from colleagues. Next the engineering sector is featured, highlighting the serious consequences that can result from wrongdoing in this area, and the ethical codes that have been implemented. Finally, the healthcare sector is examined with a focus on the NHS in the UK. The issues that have arisen from the decision to run the institution according to market principles are discussed. Case studies are presented for each sector, and key learnings are discussed. To conclude the chapter, parallels and differences in speak‐up mechanisms and culture across sectors are pointed out, and the economic and political context that informs the culture is discussed.
Chapter 4 begins with an overview of Kaptein's research on how culture influences the decision to speak up or not, and then revisits speaking up as a protracted process in more detail, building on the discussion from Chapter 2. Next, we discuss the expectations that are intertwined with speaking up, drawing on Watzlawick's communication theory and Bird's idea of ‘muted conscience’. We then present some of the challenges to operating speak‐up channels, highlighting the concepts of independence, responsiveness and time, and drawing on our own research for examples of these challenges in practice. Following this, we consider some of the barriers to responsiveness and the role trust plays in facilitating responsive behaviour. Finally, we conclude with recommendations on how to use the speak‐up data that is captured when arrangements are in place to help assess the receptiveness of an organization towards employee voice.
The overall aim of the book is to provide a practical guide that is strongly informed by critical interpretation of the relevant research including our own and other academic work. By drawing on various empirical and theoretical frames, we are able to present whistleblowing as a collective endeavour, show the importance of mutual support of employees who wish to speak up, as well as the necessity of fostering a culture of openness and transparency that is conducive to promoting fearless speech. All of these ideas can be used by managers to implement speak‐up arrangements that are effective and protect both whistleblowers and the organization. We begin in Chapter 2 by discussing the importance of speak‐up arrangements.
ENDNOTES
1
. Ionescu (2015: 57); Kenny (2019); Kenny, Fotaki, and Scriver (2018).
2
. Devine (2012).
3
. OECD (2011).
4
. Council of Europe (2014).
5
. EU Commission (2018).
6
. Blueprint for Free Speech (2018).
7
. De Graaf (2016).
8
. Boone (2016); van Steenbergen (2014).
9
. Rankin (2018); EU Commission (2018).
10
. Gresko (2018).
11
. Government Accountability Project (2018).
12
. Devine and Maassarani (2011).
13
. Francis (2015).
14
. SEC (2014).
15
. OSHA (2018).
16
. FCA (2015a).
17
. For example, see Berwick (2013); Harding (2014); O'Brien (2003).
18
. Alford (2001); Devine and Maassarani (2011).
19
. Roberts et al. (2011).
20
. Devine (2012).
21
. Kenny (2014); Kenny (2018).
22
. Kenny (2017); Kenny, Fotaki, and Scriver (2018); Kenny, Fotaki, and Vandekerckhove (2019); Kenny (2019); Vandekerckhove, Fotaki, Kenny, Humantito, and Ozdemir Kaya (2016).
23
. Vandekerckhove and Rumyantseva (2014).
24
. Vandekerckhove (2013).
25
. Vandekerckhove (2013).
26
. Fotaki and Humantito (2015).
27
. Francis (2013).
28
. See
https://www.unodc.org/dohadeclaration/en/topics/education‐for‐justice.html
for more information on this project.
29
. Miceli, Near, and Dworkin (2008).
CHAPTER 2Why Speak‐up Systems: Why Now?
INTRODUCTION
Speak‐up arrangements is the term currently used for internal whistleblowing procedures. The phrase represents an attempt to avoid the negative connotations of the term ‘whistleblowing’ as denoting a squealer or snitch.1 Whistleblowing is ‘the disclosure by organization members (former or current) of illegal, immoral, or illegitimate practices under the control of their employers, to persons or organizations that may be able to effect action’.2 Whistleblowing as a term has been in use since the 1970s, and it has been the subject of much research. Topics range from whether instances of whistleblowing can be accurately predicted in a given organizational setting,3 to legal frameworks protecting whistleblowers' rights and the impacts of retaliation by organizations on those who speak up.
This book focuses on how best to facilitate whistleblowing within organizations in a safe and effective manner, such that first, the wrongdoing that has been identified can be rectified and second, and equally important, the person raising the alarm can be protected. This is an area of growing concern both in academic literature4 and in professional practice. Encouraging people to speak up about perceived wrongdoing is not easy, particularly in organizational cultures in which silence is the norm, and where there is little support available for speaking out.5 Given the importance of whistleblowers for society and for organizations as described in Chapter 1, it is vital to pursue this field of study.
BACKGROUND: WHY SPEAK‐UP SYSTEMS, WHY NOW?
A shift towards encouraging effective speak‐up arrangements in organizations has been visible lately in the activities of key actors across a range of institutional settings.
From an external perspective, that is, for whistleblowers going outside of their organization to report wrongdoing*, industry and sectoral regulators are increasingly restructuring their own processes such that they are able to receive information passed on through external disclosures. For example, in the UK, both the FCA and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) now have dedicated whistleblowing teams registering and following‐up whistleblower concerns raised with them. At the internal level in organizations, many guidelines for organizational whistleblowing policy have recently been developed.6 These emerge in response to an increase in legislative protection for whistleblowers in a number of countries,7 as well as to regulators who signal that organizations are responsible for creating cultures that encourage internal whistleblowing. Indeed, many now insist that the organizations they regulate implement robust measures for the internal disclosure of information.8 In the context of the UK financial sector for example, in their recent joint consultation paper, the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)9 discussed the option of sanctioning organizations that lack or operate inadequate internal whistleblowing arrangements. Indeed, the FCA now obliges all deposit‐holding institutions to have a ‘champion’ in place: a dedicated senior person to deal with internal whistleblowing reports. Organizations will be fined if they do not have such policies. In the UK health sector, the Freedom to Speak Up Review (Francis Report) was published in 2015 following a detailed inquiry in 2013. Its focus was the failings in care provision within an NHS Foundation Trust. The review notes the requirement for all NHS trusts to alter their structures such that a specified individual would act as a ‘whistleblower guardian’, who would oversee whistleblowing procedures and arrangements from within the organization.10
Such changes are not without consequence, however, and give rise to new issues. For example, it is likely that these organizational whistleblowing procedures and arrangements will now also have to pass scrutiny of external audit and satisfy an externally defined standard, such as the UK Code of Practice suggested by Public Concern at Work,11 and taken over by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) in its guidance to employers.12 This shift necessarily increases the demands placed on internal audit, as it is likely that this will result in an increased accountability for internal auditors with regard to effective speak‐up arrangements. In addition these changes take place against a legal backdrop that is frequently shifting. (See Box 1.1.)
As with all significant changes in organizational cultures and structures, the implementation of speak‐up arrangements will have wide and far‐reaching implications and thus must be treated seriously by the organizations involved. The insights developed in this chapter leads us to conclude by proposing a new approach to this key issue.
Importance of Effective Speak‐up Systems: The Issue of Retaliation
Where there is little or no effective support available within organizations for speaking up about risky, illegal or dangerous activities, people who do so can be at risk of retaliation. Organizational retaliation is unfortunately a common response to whistleblowing,13 and it appears to be increasing.14 Rehg et al. define it as undesirable action taken against a whistleblower—in direct response to the whistle‐blowing (sic)—who reported wrongdoing internally or externally, outside the organization.15 Reasons for retaliation vary; managers can feel deeply threatened by whistleblowers,16 whereas both employers and co‐workers can resort to reprisals to protect the reputation of specific colleagues17 or the organization itself.18 Thus, retaliation can come from a variety of sources.19
Retaliation can also be deployed as a means of deterring other potential whistleblowers in the organization,20 for example in the case of Jeffery Wigand at Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp.21 Jeffrey Wigand was hired as a scientist for a tobacco company in 1989. During the time he was employed, he witnessed various wrongdoing, from the changing of minutes to remove incriminating information, to the smuggling of seeds in cigarette boxes, and the cover up of the dangers of cigarettes. He reported his concerns to his boss, and was subsequently fired. Later, after hearing a tobacco executive lie under oath about the harmful effects of tobacco, he took his story to the media. He was then told by a Kentucky judge that he would be jailed if he spoke about tobacco matters. This treatment was in part a desperate attempt by the tobacco industry to discourage others who had the same information from speaking out.22
When retaliation is used to silence not only the whistleblower but others who could potentially speak out, it represents a ‘disciplinary’ form of power—that is, where transgressions of tacit organizational norms are publicly reprimanded so as to discourage others. For Alford23
