Notes On Whistleblowing

In her article, Tina Uys uses the example of whistleblowing to highlight and explain the
methodological challenges that researchers face while attempting to conduct researches on the
sociology of business ethics. The main purpose of this article is to critically weigh the pros and
cons of using different methodologies and suggest a way forward.
Traditional definitions mainly focus on the philosophical or normative nature of business ethics
and do not take into account the significance of the social science research that goes behind it.
George Frederickson argues that ethical arguments should be tested against empirical
evidence.
In this regard, Deon Rossouw identifies 3 different kinds of ethics.
a) Metaethics – defined as the philosophical reflection on the nature of moral judgements and
includes issues related to the definitions of concepts
b) Prescriptive ethics – Under this type, in the case of a moral dilemma a particular choice is
prescribed and a theoretical justification Is provided for the choice
c) Descriptive ethics – This approach seeks to accurately describe and explain ethical
situations and find out what moral values individuals actually support and act on. This is
where business ethics overlaps with sociology as it is concerned with understanding human
behavior in a broader social context.
In this regard, Hendry identifies the main research agenda of the sociology of business ethics:
a) The underlying moral values backing people’s behavior within a society or organization
b) How one person’s behavior complements or contradicts that of others and how this
exchange effects the organization
c) How stable a society would turn out to be should people value self-interest more than moral
discipline.
The main research agenda of the sociology of business ethics is to gauge the level of
compatibility between traditional moral values and the increasing perceived relevance
and significance of self-interest in today’s business world.
Being a relatively new field of study, business ethics faces a lot of challenges and Rossouw has
pointed towards 4 main methodological challenges. These refer to factors that need to be
considered when deciding on a research method or strategy. The challenges include:
1) The stage of development of this study – This field of study lacks a solid theoretical
foundation and without that any proposed understanding of human morality is not credible
2) The ambiguity – There are two sources of ambiguity:

a) The lack of agreement regarding definitions of key concepts
The term ‘whistleblowing’ is now used in various contexts and therefore has become
very ambiguous. There seems to be considerable amount of agreement regarding one
element of the definition which says that whistleblowing refers to the disclosure of
organizational wrongdoing to an authority which is perceived to be powerful enough to
take action against it. Many authors also agree that the reporter should be an insider for
them to be tagged as a whistleblower. While some authors define it very broadly so as to
include any disclosure irrespective of whether or not its sanctioned by the concerned
organization, others specify that the whistleblowing must be bureaucratically
unauthorized. Geoffrey Hunt identifies 3 main criteria which characterizes
bureaucratically unauthorized disclosure.
 If the disclosed information is confidential and is subject to secrecy clauses
 If the organization does not recognize the reporter to be senior enough to have
the authority to act as a whistleblower
 If the reporter does not follow the organizations directives concerning the
whistleblowing channel or recipients
There is further argument regarding whether or not role-prescribed disclosure of

wrongdoing should be included in the definition of whistleblowing because it is generally
assumed that in such cases, the discloser is not victimized as much as typical non role-
prescribed whistle blowers. Then, there is a distinction between internal and external
whistleblowing where many authors exclude internal disclosure from the definition of
whistleblowing and more so because all prospective whistleblowers are expected to
exhaust internal channels of disclosure before resorting to external authorities. Some
specify that the disclosure of information also has to be in the public interest and this
complicates things as often the employers might feel otherwise. Many even only
recognize an act of whistleblowing if the reporter faces retaliation on part of the
organization.
Therefore, proper conceptualization of key concepts is a prerequisite of quality research.

Furthermore, ambiguity resulting from inconsistency in the understanding of terms by
research respondents must be explicitly acknowledged in the research design. Open
ended questions, interviews and focus groups and other methodologies that allow
respondents to interact with their researcher and/or fellow respondents and hence co-
construct the meanings of ambiguous terms are better-suited to reduce the level of
ambiguity in such research areas.
b) The non-factual nature of business ethics

The decision as to whether something is right or wrong is dependent upon an
individual’s value judgement and is therefore subjective. There is ongoing debate about
whether the whistleblower’s motives should be considered when defining an act as
whistleblowing. Lampert identifies 4 possible motives:
 High moral ground, choiceless choice
 Want to exclude themselves from the act because risk of exposure is high
 Unveil the inequitable distribution of rewards
 Act of vengeance
Latimer includes the aspiration to become a hero as it is generally assumed that the
whistleblower is the moral hero and the organization the villain. The inclusion of the
purity of motive further complicates the defining process as it is not practically possible
to understand an individual’s motives and they might have mixed motives. However, the
perceived motives play a role in the moral justifiability of whistleblowing. The ethics of it
could be analyzed using two moral purposes:
 Consequensialist or utilitarian view – done in a responsible manner with an
aim to correct the wrongdoing
 Deontological view – to adhere to a moral principle or a sense of duty
The latter makes more sense because for any individual it is almost impossible to
correctly predict the consequences of his/her actions and it is more natural for them to
believe that they are doing the right thing from any and all viewpoints which reflects the
deontological purpose. In this regard, the substance of the whistleblower’s claim also
comes into play. Their claim might be based on incomplete information or be out of
malice.
3) Embeddedness of business ethics in the economic setting

Rossouw argue that quantitative methods would be less helpful in determining actual ethical
behavior. Most of the survey is done through self-reporting which is subject to social
desirability bias where respondents subconsciously frame their answers in a way that they
perceive their researcher want to hear rather than in an objective manner. Qualitative
methods are more vulnerable to be laced with impression management. However, which
methods should be used depends on the context and the environment. Quantitative
methods like surveys on the other hand provide the privacy and anonymity that can
potentially reduce the social desirability bias. Therefore, a combination of methods must be
used depending on the context.
4) Sensitivity
The sensitive nature of business ethics gives rise to enquiries that make people reflect on
their moral values and essence of their being in surveys. One technique appropriate for
conducting sensitive research is taking a narrative approach in an interview. The researcher
introduces the central point and then encourages the respondent to share their side of the
story. This is followed by a questioning phase where clarifications are sought in a non-
threatening manner. Apart of social desirability, non-response is also an issue especially in
the case of interviewing employers. In this case again, a self-administered survey would be
less conducive to non-response owing to the anonymity.
A way forward
While quantitative methods yield objective results about the factors that cause certain behavior
and reduce social desirability bias, qualitative methods complement them in two ways:
 Help us understand the underlying reasons of why and how these behavior patterns
occur
 Enhance our insight into the respondents’ perception of their own behavior
Research in business ethics like whistleblowing should therefore be designed to accommodate

a multi-strategy approach made of both qualitative and quantitative methods.

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In her article, Tina Uys uses the example of whistleblowing to highlight and explain the

In this regard, Deon Rossouw identifies 3 different kinds of ethics.

2) The ambiguity – There are two sources of ambiguity:

There is further argument regarding whether or not role-prescribed disclosure of

Therefore, proper conceptualization of key concepts is a prerequisite of quality research.

b) The non-factual nature of business ethics

3) Embeddedness of business ethics in the economic setting

Research in business ethics like whistleblowing should therefore be designed to accommodate

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