Whistleblowing in the eye of the beholder: the debate of successful whistleblowing policy implementation

This chapter will discuss how whistleblowing policies move into practice and the implications for organizations and employees. Research has identified tensions exist across layers of an organization in the implementation of whistleblowing policies (Cunha et al., 2018) and this chapter considers the gap between policy and practice by focusing on the intentions, realities, and responsibilities of whistleblowing policies in practice, examining potential causes and disparities. This chapter will also consider practical consequences for the whistleblower and the organization (Mannion et al. (2018), focusing on culture and communications. In doing so, I seek to discover what outcomes of successful policy implementation may look like and for whom (Rothschild, 2013). This chapter will show how successful policy implementation may depend on positionality, responsibility, assurance, willingness to listen to early warnings (Abazi, 2020), and reputation. How heard a whistleblower may be when they speak, and what happens discussed alongside what a good outcome looks like for organizations and leaders highlight the diversity of success criteria. By understanding different viewpoints, leaders and managers can reflect on how open their door really is, and how successful whistleblowing policies in practice are, and for whom.