Why is it important to understand and counter reprisals?
Reprisals and silence in the face of wrongdoing ensure wrongdoing and corruption flourish at great costs to individuals and society. This includes not only damage to the economy and loss of money but also risks to the health and safety of people. Another consequence of allowing the continuation of reprisals against whistleblowers raises concerns about legitimizing organizational lawlessness and accepting corruption in government as a norm. Further, when institutional corruption occurs it can include loss of public trust.
A Contingency Theory of the Whistleblowing Reprisal Paradox
While investigating the causes of reprisals for doing one's duty, it was discovered that there was no one explanation for this contradiction. However, drawing on the findings in Whistleblowing Canada's foundational study Law, Culture and Reprisals, A Qualitative Case Study of Whistleblowing and Health Canada's Drug Approval Process, it was further discovered that there were many explanations/theories that provided a piece of the puzzle. Building on the work of past researchers from a number of fields - psychology, sociology, organizational behaviour, business ethics, political science - the following "Contingency Theory of Reprisals" was developed.
External and Internal Factors That Cause Reprisals
For a full understanding of reprisals it is necessary to consider the external and internal environment of organizations. The external environment in which organizations exist has an influence on the internal environment. Research tells us that organizational misconduct is socially and culturally produced. Facilitating this is- competition, economic success as a culturally approved goal, and erosion of norms supporting legitimate procedures for achieving this success.
With regard to the internal environment, in addition to personal factors, systemic factors influence whether concerns will be raised internally or not. The culture and ethical climate inside an organization is a major factor. There are three elements which contribute to ethical dysfunction - structure, leadership and culture. Structure, as in a strict vertical hierarchy, inhibits communication and leaves a whistleblower with few options, particularly when there is top-down unethicality. Leadership has a powerful influence on the organizational culture. Leaders’ behaviors send important messages about what is important and what is not, how they respond to crises, what they reward and punish, and who they hire and fire. The culture of an organization or how people behave and treat each other takes its cues from leaders behaviours not what they say. There should be no gap between what a leader says and what he/she does.
Misconduct Sparks Whistleblowing
When misconduct occurs, it often sparks whistleblowing especially if internal cultures are not conducive to dealing with disclosures appropriately and safely. And whistleblowing sparks reprisals - the targeting and victimization of people trying to do what is right. This phenomenon is even more perplexing when one considers many professions are legally obligated to report wrongdoing to the very top of the hierarchy if necessary. Why then do reprisals occur? When misconduct is exposed, either internally or externally, it is often perceived as a threat - whether innocent or guilty – to other individuals’ ego, group or system and triggers underlying cognitive processes and emotions. These basic and often unconscious instincts, which have survived in us since primitive times, are to destroy the threat. Before change can take place, individuals in organizations need to become aware and understand how these thought processes and emotions influence individual and group behavior so destructive reprisal behaviors by leaders and subordinates alike can be modified.
The following diagram depicts a federal organization and what is happening in its external environment. It also summarizes individual and organizational factors in its internal environment that moderate or influence how serious or otherwise reprisals will be. In other words, whether reprisals are more or less severe is contingent on the extent to which the individual and organizational factors summarized below are present. All organizations – both public and private, exist in a similar environment. For more detail refer to the study here.
References
Forward, Pamela. Law, Culture and Reprisals, A Qualitative Case Study of Whistleblowing and Health Canada's Drug Approval Process. (2017)
Jurkiewicz, C. L. and R.A. Giacalone. “Organizational Determinants of Ethical Dysfunctionality”. Journal of Business Ethics. (2014))
Merton qtd. in Vaughan – Controlling Unlawful Organizational Behaviour (1985)).