Why police officers and labour inspectors (do not) blow the whistle

Loyens, Kim

doi:10.1108/13639511311302461

Cited by 21 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…The fear of retaliation has been reported also in the Swedish Police (deleted for anonymity), and the Swedish Police Union disclosed in 2012 that 57% of 1127 officers stated that they did not express work-related criticism (or ideas) due to the risk of retaliation (Police Union 2012). But research shows differences in willingness to report, depending on the type and the perceived seriousness of the misconduct (Gottschalk and Holgersson 2011;Westmarland 2005), and it shows various degrees of willingness to report wrongdoings in different police employee groups (Loyens 2013), such as supervisors Baldwin 2006, 2007). Baldwin (2006, 2007) have concluded, for example, that police are less likely than civilian employees to maintain a code of silence.…”

Section: Whistleblowing and The Policementioning

confidence: 99%

“…These results point towards the variances in the (non)reporting of wrongdoings within the police. In fact, some of these findings have made researchers question whether the code of silence is restricted to the police, and if it is a simplistic concept that neglects different motives for not blowing the whistle (Krinsky 2016;Loyens 2013). Most of these studies have focused on reporting on peers, and have not included organisational wrongdoings.…”

Section: Whistleblowing and The Policementioning

confidence: 99%

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Learning the (hidden) silence policy within the police

Wieslander

2018

Studies in Continuing Education

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Many organisations declare that the ability for employees to speak out about organisational matters is important for organisational development. However, recent literature reports a widespread fear of retaliation among employees if they express themselvesespecially within the police. The point of departure of the present article is the tension and discrepancy between official policy and officers' accounts of the conversational climate within the police. Through empirical examples from data consisting of field studies and 33 interviews with police officers in subordinate ranks, this article describes how employees learn and reproduce informal norms that condition the conversational and working climate within the organisation. In contrast to official guidelines within the police, employees learn the informal cultural norms of keeping a low profile and remaining silent through everyday talk. Theories that stress how discourses, storytelling, and noisy silences accomplish social action are used to explain why these informal norms are given such power within an institutional setting. ARTICLE HISTORY

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Section: Whistleblowing and The Policementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Whistleblowing and The Policementioning

confidence: 99%

Learning the (hidden) silence policy within the police

Wieslander

2018

Studies in Continuing Education

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“…Whistleblowing is important because it provides the initial stimulus for improving organization efficiency and effectiveness and is often the source of solutions to organizational problems (Miceli, Near & Schwenk, 1991). Even if there is some evidence that a blue code of silence exists in police organizations, most research seems to overstate the code of silence in the police and one reason is that several research studies have been based on investigations about police corruption in the US and Australia (Loyens, 2013). Many scholars suggest that the idea of a universal homogeneous culture in the police is too simplistic and stereotypical (Scripture, 1997;Harrison, 1998;Reiner, 2010;Paoline, 2003;Waddington, 1999;Chan, 1996).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Whistleblowing within the Swedish Police

Holgersson¹

2019

Nordisk politiforskning

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Research has shown that well-functioning whistleblowing within police agencies is important, because these agencies play a key role in society. The perceived risk of retaliation after expressing criticism is the most important factor that an employee considers when deciding whether to act as a whistleblower. Different individuals and different units hold different views about the risk of retaliation after acting as a whistleblower. The police management in general has a lower perception of the risk of retaliation than other employees have. There is a huge difference between the officially presented picture of a favorable climate in the organization in which employees feel free to express criticism, and the perception of the matter that most employees have. The differences are connected to the presence of impression-management strategies that are intended to maximize the good image of the organization, and are the main reason that whistleblowing is not appreciated, despite assurances from the management that it is important.

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“…Grid-group cultural theory: the basics GGCT was originally developed in anthropology (Douglas, 1982), but subsequently applied in other research domains (Mars, 1982;Jensen, 1998;Thompson, Ellis, & Wildavsky, 1990;Hendriks, 1999;Maesschalck, 2004a;Loyens, 2012a;Loyens, 2013). In this paper, Hood (1998)'s application of GGCT on public management will be used.…”

Section: Grid-group Cultural Theory and Causal Mechanisms As Partnersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Grid-group cultural theory and the causal mechanism approach as requisite partners. Explaining enforcement decisions in West European labor inspection

Loyens

2013

Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research

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As street-level bureaucrats, labour inspectors enjoy much autonomy and discretion in the performance of their job. To avoid that this freedom is abused, two measures are often taken. First, supervisors keep oversight by inspecting their case files. Second, labour inspectors are subjected to a competitive system of targets that encourages competition. These two measures resemble two subtypes of organisational control in grid-group cultural theory, respectively hierarchical and individualistic control. The impact of both types of control has been analysed in an ethnographic case study in four field organisations of a West-European labour inspection. The overarching grid-group cultural theory framework was particularly valuable to illustrate how tensions between hierarchical and individualistic control lead to inconsistencies in the enforcement styles labour inspectors apply. However, it did not seem sufficient to explain why labour inspectors apply a hierarchical enforcement style in some investigations and an individualistic enforcement style in other investigations. This paper illustrates how the integration of grid-group cultural theory with two middle-range theories in the causal mechanism approach (i.e. moral disengagement and role strain theory) could provide such proximate explanations and thus strengthen the exploratory power of grid-group cultural theory.3

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Why police officers and labour inspectors (do not) blow the whistle

Abstract: Why police officers and labour inspectors (do not) blow the whistle: A grid group cultural teory perspective

Cited by 21 publications

References 53 publications

Learning the (hidden) silence policy within the police

Learning the (hidden) silence policy within the police

Whistleblowing within the Swedish Police

Grid-group cultural theory and the causal mechanism approach as requisite partners. Explaining enforcement decisions in West European labor inspection

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