The submitted diploma thesis deals with the topic of disclosure of wrongdoings, which has lately gained attention due to the recent considerations of the possible complex legislative proposal in the Czech Republic. Therefore the purpose of this thesis is to analyze the current legal situation of disclosure of wrongdoings in the Czech Republic, along with analyzing all the aspects that should be taken into account when considering a legislative proposal, as well as analyzing and evaluating the legislative proposals that have already been submitted. The first part of the thesis presents the subject of whistleblowing and the different approaches to the subject, which are presented by the authors of the frequently used definitions. Then the author deals with the very essence of the issue and answers the question why it is necessary to legally regulate the area of whistleblowing. This thesis also presents various problematic questions including ethical matters inextricably linked with whistleblowing. Subsequently, the thesis provides an overview of international commitments of the Czech Republic consisting of the most important documents, both hard law and soft law, related to the reporting of wrongdoings together with other relevant activities of the international instutions such as decisions of the...

This Master's thesis deals with the topic of the protection of whistleblowers, or persons reporting wrongdoing, as the term is often translated into Czech. The first part of the thesis deals with the approach to the issue, the history of whistleblowing, definitions of basic terms and concepts necessary for its further understanding, and general remarks, why it is necessary to protect the reporting persons. Furthermore, the thesis describes obligations arising in the field of protection of reporting persons under the international law and in particular, from the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, and further analyses the rules of the new EU Directive on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law. The Directive was approved at the end of 2019. It represents a comprehensive set of principles and rules, whose purpose is to ensure a high level of protection for whistleblowers across all Member States, including the Czech Republic, through the introduction of common minimum standards. Like other EU Member States, the Czech Republic is obliged to transpose the Directive into the national law by 17 December 2021 at the latest. The final part of the thesis analyses the Czech legislation on the whistleblowing. This concerns both the current legislation, the sufficiency of which has been...

Mit Hilfe von Gesetzesinitiativen wurden strenge Corporate-Governance-Anforderungen erhoben. Diese formale Governance lässt jedoch das Individuum als moralisch handelndes Subjekt völlig außer Acht. In dieser Arbeit stehen der Handelnde und der Handlungsprozess im Vordergrund. Die Bedeutung der individuellen Urteilskraft in Hinweisgebersystemen wird exemplarisch herausgearbeitet und Förderungspotential aufgezeigt.

In the light of overall democratic and normative values for Swedish education, including freedom of expression, the aim of this study was to examine how teachers’ critical comments on a school organization at upper secondary level (post-16 education) can be received and possible implications for teachers who express such criticism and for the school organization. The questions focused on criticism in relation to the core values of education and freedom of expression, in a policy context of marketization of the Swedish school system. The study was conducted as a qualitative case study; empirical data were collected from depth interviews with five teachers in two different municipalities in different parts of the country. The theoretical framework regarding criticism as a Phenom is based on the model of the whistle-blowing process by Miceli & Near (1992) and Hedin et. al. (2008). The informants’ statements are interpreted from two normative ethical theories: a deontological and a teleological perspective. Possibilities and limitations for criticism are looked upon in relation to the economic management ideology of New Public Management. The study identifies a critic process which is linked to the ideology and the school governance; in particular, in relation to the school and the school's Educational Marketization adjustment. It also shows on retaliation for the teachers - in this case study, among others, negative salary developments, redeployment but also shutdowns and buyouts. The interviewed teachers often had high confidence and high status within the school but the whistle-blowing process changed their position as self-confidence and hollowed working drive. Critical implications regarding the school's organization remained unchanged in four of five cases. The study notes, finally, that in today's school there seem to be two parallel discourses; one of speaking up and another of silence. Furthermore, the study indicates that the two discourses shape different kinds of loyalty structures in a kind of reward and punishment system. / Den här studiens övergripande syfte var att mot bakgrund av gymnasieskolans generella normativa värden undersöka hur lärares kritiska synpunkter på en skolorganisation kan mottas och eventuella konsekvenser för lärare som framför sådan kritik och för skolorganisationen. Frågeställningarna fokuserarkritikiförhållandetillskolansvärdegrundochyttrandefriheti kontextenavettmarknadsutsatt skolsystem. Studien genomfördes som en kvalitativ fallstudie; empirisk data insamlades i djupintervjuer med fem lärare i två olika kommuner i olika delar av landet. Det teoretiska ramverk vad gäller kritik som fenomen utgår ifrån modellen kritikerprocessen (Miceli &Near 1992; Hedin et. al. 2008); därtill tolkas informanternas utsagor utifrån två normativa etiska teorier: ett deontologiskt och ett teleologiskt perspektiv. Möjligheter och begränsningar för kritik kopplas därutöver till den ekonomiska förvaltningsideologin New Public Management. Resultaten i undersökningen identifierar en kritikerprocess som vidare kan kopplas till ideologi och skolans styrning; framför allt i relation till skolans kommunalisering och skolans marknadsanpassning. Resultaten visar även på repressalier för de kritiska lärarna - i denna fallstudie bl.a. negativ löneutveckling, omplaceringar men också avstängning och utköp. De intervjuade lärarna hade ofta ett högt förtroendekapital och hög status inom skolan men i och med repressalieprocessen förändrades deras position samtidigt som både självförtroendet och arbetslusten urholkades. Kritikens konsekvenser vad gäller skolans organisation föreföll i fyra av fem fall oförändrad. Studien konstaterar avslutningsvis att det i dagens skola, inom ramen för de normativa värdena om demokrati och yttrandefrihet, förefaller finnas två parallella diskurser, den ena talandets – och den andra tigandets diskurs. Studien tyder vidare på att de två diskurserna formar olika slags lojalitetsstrukturer i ett slags belönings- och bestraffnings-system.

Mit Hilfe von Gesetzesinitiativen wurden strenge Corporate-Governance-Anforderungen erhoben. Diese formale Governance lässt jedoch das Individuum als moralisch handelndes Subjekt völlig außer Acht. In dieser Arbeit stehen der Handelnde und der Handlungsprozess im Vordergrund. Die Bedeutung der individuellen Urteilskraft in Hinweisgebersystemen wird exemplarisch herausgearbeitet und Förderungspotential aufgezeigt.

Whistle-blowers have an important role as they reveals incongruities in organizations in order to enable improvement of working conditions. However, there is a risk of reprisals against the employees when expressing their discontent, which may prevent them from blowing the whistle. Since whistle-blowers in private sectors have less protection of freedom of expression against their employer, the protections of whistleblowing also become weaker in these organizations. Nowadays it is becoming increasingly common for businesses in the welfare sector to govern under private management, but still with public funding. A weak protection of whistleblowing therefore reduces the public's opportunity to gain insight into how public funds are used. Therefore the aim of the study is to examine the protection of whistleblowing in private sectors and especially highlight the problem with a weak protection in private organizations that are publicly funded. The Swedish law has no general regulation for the protection of whistle-blowers, which leads to a complex legal situation. It will additionally be new regulations introduced in this area, which might lead to further complexity. The second purpose of the study is therefore to analyse the new regulations and identify some possible consequences of the legislation. A legal dogmatic method is used in the essay with the purpose of investigating the current legislation. The study shows that employees in private sectors have a relatively expansive right to criticize their employer and the conditions at workplaces. The judgement depends on how the employee chooses to express their criticism and therefore there are several factors that must be taking into account. The new regulations will hopefully reduce the risk of reprisals related to whistleblowing. On the other hand there are some identified weaknesses in the legislation that might imply that the intention of the law not would be fulfilled. Therefore the question still stands if the whistle-blower’s situation in the private sector will be improved by the new regulations.

This dissertation consists of three studies. The first study provides a review and synthesis of past accounting research regarding factors that influence whistleblowing. The second study is a content analysis to examine the variation of organizations’ internal whistleblowing policy, including both the content characteristics of the policy and the linguistic characteristics of the policy. In terms of the content characteristics of the whistleblowing policy, this study focuses on who is covered in the policy, where to report, employees’ responsibility, corporate investigation procedures, disciplinary action against the wrongdoer, and anti-retaliation policy. In terms of the linguistic characteristics of the internal whistleblowing policy, this study focuses on the types of pronouns, the language uncertainty of the policy, and the tone of the policy (positive or negative). Furthermore, the overlaps between the content characteristics and the linguistic characteristics are also identified. The third study is a 2 by 2 between-subjects experiment to investigate the best design of companies’ internal whistleblowing policy. By breaking the internal whistleblowing policy into the reporting policy (responsibility to report and reporting channel) and the anti-retaliation policy (protection against retaliation), the experiment manipulates the type of pronouns for the reporting policy (first-person pronoun reporting policy or third-person pronoun reporting policy) and type of pronouns for the anti-retaliation policy (first-person pronoun anti-retaliation policy or third-person pronoun anti-retaliation policy). Results suggest that first-person reporting policy is better than third-person reporting policy at encouraging reporting unethical behaviors and this is mediated by the language vividness effect.

Thesis advisor: Donald Fishman / The purpose of this thesis is to examine a multitude of concepts related to the phenomenon of whistleblowing. Chinn, Mufson, and Pearlman (2013) underline that we find ourselves “in the age of the whistleblower” and it is therefore imperative to understand this new phenomenon. The visibility of whistleblowers in the media is increasing but whistleblowers are not always portrayed accurately, and, as such, it may be beneficial to examine them in a more legitimate context. As whistleblowers can provide a tremendous service to the public, their organization, and the current economic situation, it is in society’s best interest to understand the whistleblowing process in order to encourage its expansion. The first half of the thesis examines the logistics of the whistleblowing process, the characterization of a whistleblower, and the various groups that can benefit from the whistleblowing phenomenon. This in depth analysis aims to dispel any misconceptions about whistleblowing and provides readers with a comprehensive overview of the literature available on whistleblower dynamics. The second half of the thesis reviews whistleblower laws from their foundation nearly two centuries ago all the way to current developments in whistleblower legislation. It analyzes the strengths and deficiencies of various legal measures and seeks to demonstrate why whistleblower legislation may never fully afford whistleblowers the comprehensive protection they deserve. This section will argue that, though whistleblower legislation has certainly improved in aiming to promote whistleblowing, certain deficiencies remain a permanent part of whistleblower law. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Communication Honors Program. / Discipline: Communications.

I syfte att undanröja oegentligheter förekommer det att arbetstagare inom bolag avslöjar uppkomna missförhållanden; så kallad whistleblowing. För svensk rätts vidkommande lagstiftades detta rättsinstitut först år 2017, i syfte att förhindra företeelser såsom marknadsmissbruk, korruption och miljöförstöring. Den nyligen antagna lagstiftningen tycks enligt kritikerna dock innehålla oklara moment. Det är sålunda av vikt att undersöka huruvida lagstiftningen kommer verka effektivt för whistleblower[s]. Skulle lagstiftningen vara att anse otillräcklig och icke förutsebar, föreligger nämligen risk för informationsasymmetrier. För att utreda problematiken är en komparativrättslig studie med stöd av amerikansk rätt avseende whistleblowing relevant. Aktuellt för detta arbete är Sarbanes-Oxley Act och Dodd-Frank Act, vilka antogs år 2002 i genmäle till större redovisningsskandaler inom Enron och Worldcom, respektive marknadskollapsen år 2008 och efterföljande bankkonkurser. Det huvudsakliga syftet var att etablera procedurer för behandling av larm avseende missförhållanden, förbud mot repressalier, samt skadestånds- och straffrättsligt ansvar respektive främjande av finansiell stabilitet. Beträffande svensk rätt har whistleblower[s] erhållit skydd medelst yttrandefrihet, meddelarskydd, arbetsrättsligt skydd, lojalitetsplikt, samt av bolag företagen självreglering. Denna gällande rätt har dock ansetts ofullständig och omständlig. Den för svensk rätts vidkommande antagna lagstiftningen avseende whistleblowing innehåller krav på allvarliga missförhållanden och fog för påstående, samt möjliggörs intern- och externrapporterting. Argumentationen i propositionen framstår emellertid såsom inkonsekvent. Det bör sålunda vara rimligt anta, att de svagheter i svensk rätt som kan återfinnas i regleringen avseende whistleblowing resulterar i ett, för svensk rätts vidkommande, skydd för arbetstagare som är fragmenterat och svårtillämpat. Visserligen har även amerikansk rätt avseende whistleblowing fått utstå kritik. Oavsett reflektioner beträffande kritiken amerikansk rätt mottagit, får amerikansk reglering anses erbjuda tydligare skydd, varför det bör vara möjligt överföra vissa delar av amerikansk rätt till svensk reglering avseende whistleblowing, för att stärka regleringen och möjliggöra att dess ändamål uppfylls. / In order to eliminate irregularities in companies, workers can reveal anomalies; through so-called whistleblowing. In Swedish law, this legal phenomenon was adopted into legislation in 2017. However, according to critics, the legislation contains unclear clauses. Thus, it is important to examine whether the legislation will work effectively. Should the newly adopted legislation be considered inadequate and unpredictable, there is a risk for information asymmetries. Therefore, a comparative legal study with support of American law regarding whistleblowing, is motivated. In this thesis, I will examine the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) as well as the Dodd-Frank Act of 2008, which were adopted in response to the major accounting scandals of Enron and WorldCom, respectively the market collapse in 2008 and subsequent bank failures. In both SOX and the Dodd Frank Act, procedures for the management of whistleblower alarms, prohibitions on reprisals as well as rules on tort and criminal liability were introduced with an aim to promote financial stability. As to Swedish law, whistleblowers have received protection from reprisals by laws regulating freedom of speech, protection of sources, labor law protection, the concept of duty of loyalty, and by companies establishing self-regulation. However, statutory protection of whistleblowers in other laws has been considered incomplete, which is why the legislature has deemed whistleblowing worthy of protection by a separate law only governing whistleblowing. However, the newly adopted Swedish law regarding whistleblowing appears to contain some weaknesses due to inconsistencies and unclear clauses. It is true that American laws regarding whistleblowing have endured criticism. However, it is reasonable to assume that the weaknesses in Swedish law regarding whistleblowing result in a protection for workers, which is fragmented and difficult to apply. Given the fact that American regulation regarding whistleblowing is providing more consistent protection to whistleblowers, Swedish regulators should consider the adoption of certain rules from American law, to strengthen the regulation and allow its purpose to be fulfilled.

Arbetstagare som uttrycker sig om sin arbetssituation via forum som sociala medier har blivit allt vanligare. Denna undersökning försöker svara på varför arbetstagare väljer att uttrycka sig om sin arbetssituation via detta forum och vilka konsekvenser detta kan få. Först har intervjuer med arbetstagare som uttryckt sig via sociala medier om sin arbetssituation genomförts. Därefter har vinjetter utformats utifrån resultatet från intervjuerna samt ett uppmärksammat fall i tidningen om just en sådan här händelse. Vinjetterna har sedan presenterats för en VD, en konsultchef med personalansvar och en fackombudsman för att kunna ta del av deras reaktioner på situationerna. Resultatet från undersökningen visar på flera bidragande faktorer till varför arbetstagare väljer sociala medier som forum för sitt uttryck om sin arbetssituation. Sociala medier som en ventil, relation med sin närmsta chef och paralleller till whistleblowing har gjorts. Konsekvenserna har varit varierande från uppsägning till inga konsekvenser alls. Resultatet visar också på konsekvenser som ärligare arbetstagare, tappat förtroende mellan chef och arbetstagare samt svårigheter att bedöma situationer.