Journal ArticleDOI
Whistleblowing in French Corporations: Anatomy of a National Taboo
Gregory Katz,Marc Lenglet +1 more
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In this article, the authors investigate five distinct perspectives: legal, economic, historical, philosophical, and sociological, to understand the moral reticence of French companies towards whistleblowing, and report on an economic survey, that gathers empirical data from 82 large French corporations, and analyzes different business sectors and the working population covered by a whistleblowing procedure.Abstract:
Denunciations, disclosures and reporting: why do whistleblowing procedures create an ethical dilemma in French corporations? Since July 2006, the requirement that foreign multinationals listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) implement this practice has been met with stiff resistance in many French companies. French labor unions see this controversy as a clash between the French and Anglo-Saxon models of transparency. To understand the moral reticence of French companies towards whistleblowing, we investigate five distinct perspectives: legal, economic, historical, philosophical and sociological. 1/ We first probe into the legal contradictions in French regulations and find in these paradoxes the symptoms of a national taboo. 2/We report on an economic survey, that gathers empirical data from 82 large French corporations, and analyzes different business sectors in France and the working population covered by a whistleblowing procedure. 3/ To elicit the etiology of this taboo, we return to the historical sources of the Dreyfus Affair and the Vichy regime, whose political traumas remain imprinted on the collective French memory. The linguistic confusion between the two French terms delation and denonciation shows why whistleblowing is perceived in France more as an act of betrayal than of heroism. 4/ The philosophical roots of whistleblowing also shed light on the organizational behavior of French companies and the transparency they are struggling to promote. 5/Entangled in sociological ambiguities, we discuss why French companies see whistleblowing as a risk, not as a means to prevent risk.read more
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Trade unions and the whistleblowing process in the UK: An opportunity for strategic expansion?
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that trade unions have an important part to play in dealing with both these inhibiting factors but this requires them to be appropriately engaged in the whistleblowing process and willing to take a more proactive approach to negotiations.
Book ChapterDOI
Ambivalence and Ambiguity: The Interpretive Role of Compliance Officers
TL;DR: In this article, Muniesa et al. look at situations where the description of the financial world cannot be taken at face value or seen as a black-and-white picture, and they find the same set of issues, especially when the subject is focused not on macro-prudential equilibria (systemic risk), but rather on daily routines unfolding in financial firms and markets.
Journal ArticleDOI
From symbols to systems: progress in the reform of Australia’s private sector whistleblowing laws*
TL;DR: The need for reform to Australia's private sector whistleblowing laws, currently contained in the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), has long been on the agenda as discussed by the authors, despite only being enacted in 2004, the need for refor...
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Characteristics of organizational climate and perceived wrongdoing associated with whistle-blowing decisions.
Marcia P. Miceli,Janet P. Near +1 more
TL;DR: The potential explanations of why some observers report organizational wrongdoing, whereas others do not, are considered in this article, where nearly 8,600 randomly selected employees of 15 organizations completed questionnaires concerning whistle-blowing.
Journal ArticleDOI
Whistleblowing: A Restrictive Definition and Interpretation
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors define whistleblowing as a dissenting act of public accusation against an organisation which necessitates being disloyal to that organisation, based on the ethical dilemma of conflicting loyalties and the strict way that dilemma is formulated in terms of confidentiality and proprietary rights over information.
Journal ArticleDOI
Compliance and Values Oriented Ethics Programs: Influences on Employees’ Attitudes and Behavior
TL;DR: Weaver et al. as discussed by the authors investigated the relationship of the values and compliance orientations in an ethics program to a diverse set of outcomes and found that a values orientation makes a greater unique contribution to the measured outcomes when compared to a compliance orientation.
Journal ArticleDOI
Can Laws Protect Whistle-Blowers? Results of a Naturally Occurring Field Experiment
TL;DR: In this paper, data collected over three time periods, from 1980 to 1992, show massive changes in the ways in which federal employees reported wrongdoing and the effects on them for having done so.
Journal ArticleDOI
Whistle Blowers: Saints of Secular Culture
TL;DR: The courage, determination, and sacrifice of the most ardent whistle blowers suggests that they only begin to be appreciated when they are seen as the saints of secular culture as mentioned in this paper, and the most serious instances involve a level of moral sensitivity that approaches religious proportions that are baffling for a culture that has dispensed with sainthood.