Tina Uys

Protecting whistleblowers at work: A comparison of the impact of British and South African legislation

Purpose – The paper proposes to compare the relative success of the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (UK) and the Protected Disclosures Act 2000 (South Africa) in providing protection for whistleblowers in the UK and South Africa.Design/methodology/approach – The assessment is conducted in the light of case law in both countries and empirical research previously conducted.Findings – The most important feature of the relevant statutes in both countries is that they recognise the need to protect workers who disclose in the public interest. Although the current provisions are important first steps, it is believed that much more needs to be done.Practical implications – In the light of this research, 14 suggestions are made for change.Originality/value – The article makes proposals for reform to the legislation in both countries. It also attempts to provide guidance to practitioners by identifying good practice in handling concerns about wrongdoing.

Rational Loyalty and Whistleblowing The South African Context

Whistleblowers often pay a heavy price for exposing what they perceive to be organizational wrongdoing. Based on 18 narrative interviews with South African whistleblowers, this article considers the contradictory nature of whistleblowing by exploring the role of loyalty, trust and betrayal in explaining the retaliation that whistleblowers receive. It concludes that whistleblowing can only achieve its aims of addressing organizational wrongdoing without high costs for the whistleblower and the organization if organizational loyalty is reconceptualized as rational loyalty. This entails a consideration of the institutionalization of whistleblowing as authorized disclosure, how this could lead to a more rational approach to the understanding of the values of the organization and to what extent such an approach is feasible under the present circumstances in South Africa.

Morality of principle versus morality of loyalty: The case of whistleblowing

whistleblowing involves the unauthorised disclosure of organisational wrongdoing by an employee (or former employee) to those who are perceived to be in a position to act on this information. when considering whether to disclose such information, whistleblowers confront the conflicting demands of the morality of principle versus the morality of loyalty. The aim of this paper is to explore the dynamics involved in this moral dilemma. A typology reflecting the possible responses in managing such moral dilemmas is developed. Three dimensions related to wrongdoing, namely perceptions, extent of the wrongdoing and power relationships are also analysed. It is concluded that, although the conflicting demands of the morality of principle versus the morality of loyalty will always exist, there are measures that can be taken to limit the impact of these conflicts and in the long run even resolve them. In particular, if loyalty is reconceptualised as rational loyalty, the disclosure of perceived wrongdoing could more easily be interpreted as loyalty to the organisation as a whole.

Resilience and whistleblowers: Coping with the consequences

ABSTRACT Understanding the whistleblower’s ability to cope with the repercussions of showing ‘ethical resistance’ in the workplace is a neglected area of research. Drawing on qualitative data from narrative interviews with whistleblowers in South Africa, this article analyses the ways in which whistleblowers deal with the hostile responses from employers that tend to follow their disclosures. Most of the participants employed successful coping mechanisms showing that they remained hopeful that justice would prevail, even amidst emotions of distress and fear due to organisational reprisal. The study showed that the resilience perspective is an important frame for understanding whistleblowers’ responses to the challenging consequences of their actions. Practitioners should consider ways to enhance individual resilience to ensure a positive outcome of disclosures of organisational wrongdoing.

Understandings of whistleblowing: Dilemmas of societal culture

In this chapter, we demonstrate that for cross-cultural research into whistleblowing to date, this has proved a substantial challenge. So far, while the research record is important, it is relatively shallow. Overall, we argue it is time to develop a revised model (or models) for investigating and comparing how whistleblowing manifests in different societies, and the implications of cultural difference for how it is understood and managed. In the next section we sketch some of the basic implications of how concepts of whistleblowing have developed, followed by a basic overview of how the study of culture has interfaced with whistleblowing research to date – chiefly through the model of culture’s influences on organizational life developed by Hofstede (1980, 1991, 2002). In the third section we review the empirical record of this research since it began in the early 1990s, and which, despite the dominance of Hofstede’s model, gives very mixed results. The fourth section then highlights some further limitations of the research based on that model. We review other research raising questions about the model and present findings from our own research on the acceptability of whistleblowing in the United Kingdom and Australia, illustrating the limited explanatory (and even predictive) power of Hofstede’s model. In the fifth section, we discuss what kind of adapted or alternative research model might provide greater cross-cultural insights into whistleblowing. In particular, we suggest further examination of Schwartz’s approach (Schwartz 1994, Schwartz and Bardi 2001) as a possible research perspective, one that would allow for cultural shift and universals. The final, section discusses some key practical and methodological problems faced by researchers who wish to research whistleblowing cross-culturally, before conclusions are drawn.

Tradition, ambition and imagination: Challenges and choices for post-apartheid sociology

Abstract Tradition, ambition and imagination are core concepts in the identity of the sociologist. This paper focuses on these three aspects in evaluating the choices and challenges facing post-apartheid sociology. The achievement of the sociological ambition and the expression of the sociological imagination are considered in terms of Michael Burawoys (2004) distinction between professional, critical, policy and public sociology. Through this analysis the constraints and challenges facing South African sociology are exposed. It is concluded that South African sociology can best be bolstered through an active engagement with national issues and publics within a global context. In this way we can harness the sociological tradition, ambition and imagination in the creation of a better life for all in South Africa.

Challenges in the sociology of business ethics: Researching whistleblowing

The main research focus of the sociology of business ethics is on (i) the moral foundations of people’s behaviour, both within and outside the business context, (ii) how compatible or contradictory these behaviours are and (iii) how stable a society or component of a society would be if self-interest is the main governing principle, without being constrained by moral discipline. This entails providing accurate descriptions and explanations of ethical situations. Whistle-blowing research is used to examine the methodological challenges of business ethics researchers. The analysis demonstrates the importance of an integrated multi-strategy approach that would facilitate an investigation of the motivations and decision processes of individual actors in the larger social context, especially within the organisation.

Creating an ethogenic organisation: The development and implementation of a whistleblowing policy

In spite of supposedly comprehensive protective legislation, evidence suggests that whistleblowers enjoy little effective legal protection. Rather than emphasising the processes needed to support, strengthen and protect the whistleblower, and thereby encouraging whistleblowing, this article explores ways in which whistleblowing could be pre‐empted by institutionalising the spirit of whistleblowing through the creation of what we call an ethogenic organisation. In such an organisation, an organisational culture is established that allows and encourages all employees (including management) to identify and resolve issues of perceived wrongdoing in a way that is beneficial to everybody concerned, and is not driven by process.

Do We Stay or Do We Leave? The Role of Trust and Engagement in Students' Decision Whether to Remain in South Africa

Abstract This paper focuses on University of Johannesburg (UJ) students’ views on remaining in or leaving South Africa. These views are based on the degree of trust students perceive the government (broadly defined) to be worthy of, and the degree of engagement in the affairs of the country that students are prepared to expend in the context of perceived threats to South African citizens. A survey of 1214 undergraduate students on all four UJ campuses was conducted in 2011. Care was taken that the sample reflected the overall picture of the research population. The data is analysed in terms of a typology that considers the extent to which people either respond to real or perceived threats based on trust or distrust in the government’s ability and willingness to protect their interests as citizens. On this basis, they could furthermore either engage the threatening reality or disengage from it altogether. The paper analyses the extent to which patterns can be identified among different groups of UJ undergraduate students with regard to the four possible responses that emerge from the developed typology: Trusting engagement, trusting disengagement, distrusting engagement and distrusting disengagement.

The selection of academic role models by first year University students

Abstract The throughput rates of South African universities have been on the agenda of government and educational institutions for quite a while now. One of the factors that could impact university throughput rates positively is the influence of academic role models. Research has shown that adult role models sharing the same sex, race and/or age with the student could boost their academic performance. In light of this, this study aimed at exploring the differences between groups of first year sociology students at a South African urban university with regard to the criteria they use to select academic role models. The study was conducted at its main campus in 2011. A quantitative research methodology in the form of a self-administered survey was employed. It was found that the sociology first year students at the South African university considered academic qualifications/standing to be the most important criterion when selecting an academic role model compared to age and other socially ascribed statuses like race and sex. The findings of this study therefore diverge from the mainstream findings in the field of role models. This finding implies that the exclusive emphasis on making equity appointments within tertiary institutions in order to establish credible academic role models for university students should be revisited to make provision for a more complex approach, which goes beyond the focus on ascribed status.