Whistleblowing in Local Government: An Empirical Study of Contact Patterns and Whistleblowing in 20 Norwegian Municipalities

Abstract

Whistleblowing by administrative employees in local governments can bring critical knowledge about misconduct and failed policy outcomes and priorities to the attention of politicians. This article examines whether (1) whistleblowing to politicians is considered acceptable among politicians and administrative employees, (2) politicians receive whistleblowing cases and how those who do so handle the case, and (3) contact patterns between politicians and administrative employees influence the whistleblowing activity and the action taken by the politicians to address wrongdoing. The article departs from the theory of pillars of institutions and the tensions between and within institutional pillars to analyse unique data from a survey based on the vignette method and actual whistleblowing among politicians (N 5 400) and employees (N 5 373) from 20 Norwegian municipalities. The analysis shows that the degree of contact between politicians and administrative employees is correlated with positive perceptions of whistleblowing and constructive handling of wrongdoing reports by the politicians.

Crime Signal Detection Theory: Two Case Studies of the Five-Stage Model from Observer to Whistleblower

“…Their reflections can lead them to a distorted picture of events and thereby end up with a wrong conclusion about an incident. Some receivers may be too certain where to allocate the story, while others may be too uncertain regarding the story being told (Skivenes and Trygstad 2016). Pieces of information may or may not fit into a puzzle that can represent a misconduct or crime picture.…”

“…Furthermore, the person is not directly harmed by the incident, and the person subsequently reports observations in a proper manner to another person or entity that should be capable of handling and solving the misconduct case. While most studies of whistleblowing focus on the role of whistleblowers (e.g., Bjørkelo et al 2011;Craig and Piquero 2017;Johnson 2005;Keil et al 2010;Lee and Fargher 2013;Mesmer-Magnus and Viswesvaran 2005;Mpho 2017;Rehg et al 2009;Skivenes and Trygstad 2016), this study focuses on the quality of whistleblowing messages leading to potential actions by decision-makers.…”

Understanding the knowledge gaps in whistleblowing and speaking up in health care: narrative reviews of the research literature and formal inquiries, a legal analysis and stakeholder interviews

“…45,46 This work has been outside health care and the outside the UK, but could be very relevant to the NHS, particularly in terms of understanding the institutional processes by which policy-makers influence the process (cf. Blenkinsopp and Snowden 47 ).…”

“…Recommendations 113-118 were concerned with the reporting of sentinel events. However, the government rejected recommendations [45][46], that codes of professional conduct should be included in the contracts of employment for health professionals, as this was already implicit in employment contracts: 'we do not believe that we need to go further' (p. 106). 166 The government agreed 'in part' with recommendation 91, that managers as health-care professionals should be subject to the same obligations as other health-care professionals, including being subject to a regulatory body and professional code of practice.…”

“…Men were more likely to classify themselves as experiencing no distress; women were more likely to classify themselves as distressed. While some evidence suggested more exposure to unethical behaviour resulted in less distress, other evidence suggested distress increased with increased exposure Individual barriers were (1) fear of vilification and conflicts, (2) lack of technological confidence and knowledge, (3) time and (4) assessment of degree of severity 46 Schwappach and Gehring, 120 Switzerland, BMJ Open…”