This dissertation project draws from major and minor conversations in rhetorical theory to investigate how the subject of whistleblowing offers rhetorical studies the means to advance the field in ways that are timely and necessary. The singular condition of US military and intelligence whistleblowers as a specially marginalized group, yet one with considerable skills and resources, potentially reorganizes how rhetoricians traditionally regard marginalized groups. In addition, the sophistication, inventiveness, and technical skill of individuals who are in incredibly disadvantageous positions forces us to revise our relationship with significant ongoing conversations in the field, from the way that rhetoric determines what is true or probable to the role of rhetoric in liberal democracies. As my project argues, whistleblowers also give us substantial reasons to revisit the major and minor terms in the discipline, such as ethos, parrhēsia, epideictic, and kairos, among others. Yet, for a subject with such inherent dialectical wealth, there is an absence of any sustained examination in the field of rhetoric, which is puzzling given the historical and concurrent rhetorical study regarding civic discourse in democratic assemblies as well as the ongoing focus on the domains of agency, authority, and positionality. This project concludes by explicating how whistleblowing in US military and intelligence contexts is not simply a check on unconstitutional acts or a correction of waste, fraud, and abuse but rather a process that preserves the very same principles that enable rhetoric to flourish.

The theme of this diploma thesis is the phenomenon of whistleblowing, which has recently become increasingly discussed. The thesis contains seven chapters, in which the author describes the issue of whistleblowing both in theoretical and practical level. Emphasis is placed on defining the concept of whistleblowing, its historical development and exploration of the roots of the first modern whistleblower legislation, which was adopted in 1978 in the United States. The thesis also shows some specifics of whistleblower legislation in countries with Anglo-Saxon legal culture. In the second half, the author deals with the international commitments of the Czech Republic in the area of whistleblowing. It is also mentioned relevant case law of the European Court of Human Rights. Big part of the thesis is devoted to describing the state of the current whistleblowing legislation in the Czech Republic, which is considered to be greatly insufficient. In conclusion, the author suggests de lege ferenda legislative recommendations for future whistleblowing legislation in the Czech Republic.

<p>Då arbetsplatserna kan upplevas som allt </p><p>tystare är det av vikt att det trots allt finns individer som larmar om oegentligheter inom de egna organisationerna. Individer som gör så kallas whistleblowers och denna studie syftar till att försöka förstå en del i de bakomliggande orsakerna till detta beteende. Vi har studerat vilken betydelse den rådande organisationsstrukturen samt individens inre principer har för whistleblowing. Studien är kvalitativ och består av fem intervjuer med såväl personer som agerat whistleblowers, samt personer som i sin yrkesroll fyller en funktion som whistleblowers. Alla våra intervjupersoner är kopplade till människovårdande organisationer. Vår teoretiska referensram har huvudsakligen varit symbolisk interaktionism och organisationsstruktur. Vi har även använt oss av teorier om psykosocial arbetsmiljö och ledarskap. Resultatet visade att i organisationerna spelar ledarskapet och den närmsta chefen en stor roll för att agera som whistleblower. Vi fann även att individens moralsyn och den empati man känner kan vara avgörande för detta beteende. </p><p> </p><p>Nyckelord: whistleblowing, organisation, ledarskap, individ, moral</p>

Då arbetsplatserna kan upplevas som allt tystare är det av vikt att det trots allt finns individer som larmar om oegentligheter inom de egna organisationerna. Individer som gör så kallas whistleblowers och denna studie syftar till att försöka förstå en del i de bakomliggande orsakerna till detta beteende. Vi har studerat vilken betydelse den rådande organisationsstrukturen samt individens inre principer har för whistleblowing. Studien är kvalitativ och består av fem intervjuer med såväl personer som agerat whistleblowers, samt personer som i sin yrkesroll fyller en funktion som whistleblowers. Alla våra intervjupersoner är kopplade till människovårdande organisationer. Vår teoretiska referensram har huvudsakligen varit symbolisk interaktionism och organisationsstruktur. Vi har även använt oss av teorier om psykosocial arbetsmiljö och ledarskap. Resultatet visade att i organisationerna spelar ledarskapet och den närmsta chefen en stor roll för att agera som whistleblower. Vi fann även att individens moralsyn och den empati man känner kan vara avgörande för detta beteende. Nyckelord: whistleblowing, organisation, ledarskap, individ, moral

This thesis addresses the subject of whistleblowing. This is currently very topical in the Czech Republic, due to the recent Decree of the Government on measures regarding reporting of suspicious activities in civil service bodies as well as on-going legislative works. These works are aiming to create new law, which aspires to deal with whistleblowing in a more comprehensive manner. The thesis also addresses existing regulations that deal with whistleblowing. The constitutional system offers some rules on which you can base the lawfulness of whistleblowing. Individual regulations can be found in labour law, criminal law, administrative law or civil law. Legislation of protection of personal data and protection of journalistic sources are also relevant. There is still debate as to the exact definition of whistleblowing. In this thesis whistleblowing is defined as reporting harmful or unwanted conduct by internal or third parties, via a specific system of notification relevant to an entity's (in which the reporting occurs) scope. In all cases the informant should be protected from retaliatory measures. This thesis also addresses the history of experience with whistleblowing, in America up to the second half of the 18th century. Part of the thesis is also dedicated to international legislation...

Whistleblowing is a form of pro-social behaviour that occurs when a current or former employee reports organisational wrongdoing to any authority that is able to implement corrective action. While models of whistleblowing indicate that a number of social factors may influence an employee’s decision to blow the whistle, very little cognisance is given to the role of organisational trust in such situations. Since whistleblowing situations often pose problems for whistleblowers, organisational trust becomes an important facilitator for the decision to blow the whistle. This study explores whether organisational trust is an influencing social factor that may facilitate whistleblowing. It is found that organisational trust plays a significant role in decisions to blow the whistle. It shows in particular that when organisational trust exists, employees are more likely to blow the whistle, and secondly, that whistleblowing is more likely to take place internally rather than externally. Further, this study shows that in the absence of trust employees will not report organisational wrongdoing, although this finding also suggests that other social factors may impact on the decision not to blow the whistle. This dissertation argues that understanding the relationship between the two phenomena provides greater insight into how organisational trust may affect whistleblowing. / Prof. Tina Uys Dr. Neville Bews

In scenarios where an individual wishes to leak confidential information to an unauthorized party, he may do so in a public or an anonymous way. When acting publicly a leaker exposes his identity, whereas acting anonymously a leaker can introduce doubts about the information’s authenticity. Current solutions assume anonymity from everyone except a trusted third party or rely on the leaker possessing prior cryptographic keys, both of which are inadequate assumptions in real-world secret leaking scenarios. In this research we present a system called the attested drop protocol which provides confidentiality for the leaker, while still allowing leaked documents to have their origins verified. The protocol relies on identities associated with common communication mediums, and seeks to avoid having the leaker carry out sophisticated cryptographic operations. We also present two constructions of the general protocol, where each is designed to protect against different forms of adversarial surveillance. We use ceremony analysis and other techniques from the provable security paradigm to formally describe and evaluate security goals for both constructions. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc) / Whistleblowing is an activity where an individual leaks some secrets about an organization to an unauthorized entity, often for moral or regulatory reasons. When doing so, the whistleblower is faced with the choice of acting publicly, and risking retribution or acting anonymously and risking not being believed. We have designed a protocol called the attested drop protocol, which protects the identity of the whistleblower, while allowing the unauthorized entity to have a means of verifying that the leak came from the organization. This protocol makes use of preexisting identities associated with a communication medium, such as emails, to avoid using cryptographic primitives that are impractical.

Researchers have long studied the precursors to the reporting of deviant workplace acts. Previous research has often relied on descriptive studies utilizing survey research and/or simplistic models with one or two narrowly defined antecedents and demographic proxy variables. Results of these studies have resulted in inconsistent and even conflicting findings. The current study aimed to examine the causal antecedents of deviant act reporting in a more holistic way. Policy capturing was utilized to study intentions to report workplace deviant acts. Policy capturing is an idiographic approach where scenarios are used to establish the differential weighting of cues in judgment formation or behavioral intentions. Three causal antecedents were investigated. The locus of aggression and seriousness of the offense antecedents were based on the Robinson and Bennett (1995) typology of deviant acts. The third antecedent was the manipulation of the workplace offender (e.g., supervisor or peer). Subfacets of the Big Five characteristics previously found to be correlated with deviant behaviors were chosen for inclusion. Participants were educators or administrators in higher education and were asked to rate how likely they would be to report a deviant incident via two different reporting options (e.g., internal vs. external). Each participant completed several demographic items, three subfacet personality inventories, and 32 hypothetical scenarios. Hierarchical linear model was utilized for the analyses. Results showed support for the hypotheses predicting that the three situational cues would affect intentions to report. For the internal model, the three situational cues and two-way interactions accounted for a 48.2% reduction in error variance; a 52.3% reduction for the external model. The minor/serious situational cue had the highest relative cue weight for both reporting avenues. Personality variables had little effect on reporting intentions. The only significant result was found in the internal model where more cooperative individuals were more likely to report an infraction. This study serves as a baseline for future research on deviant act reporting. By utilizing the Robinson and Bennett (1995) typology, this research took an innovative approach to examining the reporting of acts within a classification system as opposed to previous studies which only examined specific behaviors. / Doctor of Philosophy / The interest in understanding deviant act reporting stems from the fact that deviant incidents are high, there are negative effects on other employees, and organizations can incur substantial financial ramifications. However, these acts are often not reported by other employees and, subsequently, behaviors are never addressed or rectified. Research in the area of reporting deviant acts has been inconsistent and has often lead to contradictory findings. The current study examined workplace deviant act reporting more holistically. A technique called policy capturing was utilized to determine which aspects of deviant acts are most likely to impact reporting intentions. Three aspects of the deviant act were examined. The locus of aggression (interpersonally directed vs. organizationally directed) and seriousness of the offense (minor vs. serious) were based on a typology of deviance developed by Robinson and Bennett (1995). The third aspect of the deviant act to be examined was the manipulation of the offender (supervisor of the witness or a peer of the witness). In addition, the impact of three personality aspects (cooperation, dutifulness and assertiveness) were examined. Participants were educators or administrators in higher education and the scenarios were based on potential scenarios applicable to this setting. Participants were asked to rate the likelihood they would report the deviant act either internally or externally. Results showed that all three aspects of the deviant act played a role in reporting intentions via both reporting channels. By far, the seriousness of the offense was the most important aspects in individuals' decision to report. Personality variables had little effect on reporting intentions with cooperative individuals being more likely to report an infraction through internal channels. This study serves as a baseline for future research on workplace deviant act reporting.

In the recent years, there have been many reports on the prevalence of corruption in the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development. Corruption impacts negatively on the image of organisations since it erodes public trust and delegitimises such organisations. Therefore, good corporate governance practices should be adopted to prevent corruption. The purpose of this study was to analyse the governance system of the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development with the view to identifying shortcomings in the system.

Whistleblowing är en möjlighet för en person att anonymt rapportera om en oegentlighet som förekommer inom organisationen. Studien har undersökt organisatoriska faktorer som påverkar denna möjlighet för den anställda, där fokus legat på vilka effekter rapporteringsstrukturen och organisationskulturen har för möjligheterna att rapportera. Undersökningen har utgått från en kvalitativ metod där intervjuer med fackliga företrädare har genomförts. Undersökning visade att det viktiga för att en whistleblowing-funktion ska ha en fungerande rapporteringsstruktur var kunskap om att funktionen finns, annars är det svårt att förvänta sig att få in rapporter. Vidare är det viktigt med tydliga rapporteringskanaler och riktlinjer där det framgår vad som är angeläget att rapportera om. Gällande organisationskulturen så var vikten av ett bra ledarskap det som framträdde tydligast. Har man ett ledarskap som tillåter en öppen kultur med högt i tak så skulle man inte vara i behov av funktionen i samma grad som om det vore lågt i tak. Är situationen sådan att man har anställda som använder sig av funktionen är det viktigt att man skapar en kultur där man som chef ser rapportörens handling som en förbättringsmöjlighet och därmed inte tilltar repressalier eller efterforska rapportören. Överlag var inställningen till funktionen att det vara bra att den fanns som ett alternativ, men att det primära borde vara att sträva mot en kultur där man kan ha dialoger på arbetsplatsen.