Whistleblowing and Organizational Social Responsibility

Book excerpt: Establishing a policy and building a culture that helps to protect organizations from financial wrong-doing, criminal or civil liability and permanent damage to corporate reputation has become a central theme of contemporary corporate policies towards 'whistleblowing'. This book is amongst the first to provide a detailed and full-length analysis of the meaning and various justifications of whistleblowing policies. While the legitimization of organizational whistleblowing suggests an adaptation of organizations to public opinion, this book examines the wider legitimization whistleblowing policies have been given, considering whether the establishment of 'policies' genuinely leads to the implicit institutionalization of whistleblowing itself. The book's particular focus is upon what kinds of 'whistleblowing' societies and organizations actually want, and whether policies developed as a result meet expectations.