Constant media exposure of organisational wrong-doing; unethical
dealings and illegal practices have come to dominate the discussions
on corporate governance. Such exposures are normally brought about
by, among others, stake-holder activism and organisational employees. Usually,
in such cases, employees have had prior knowledge about the organisational
misdeeds, but chose not to, or were afraid to speak out. If they did speak out,
then organisational retaliation would befall the individual whistleblower without
any attention to the issues raised; which tends to bring the organisational integrity
into question. Numerous case studies and research initiatives have demonstrated
that whistle-blowing can and does play a positive role in strengthening
accountability mechanisms in organisations, and, by extension, helps build
organisational integrity (Jos, 1991:105-118; Johnson & Kraft, 1990:849-874).
The aim of this article is to explore theoretically the nature of whistleblowing
as it transcends across legal, ethical/moral and social fields. This will
be demonstrated using documented South African cases of organisational
misfortunes. This exploration will be used to highlight aspects to be considered
for a framework in building whistleblower infrastructure as an integral component
of the organisational integrity, both in public and private organisations.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:tut/oai:encore.tut.ac.za:d1001170 |
| Date | 01 June 2010 |
| Creators | Diale, AJ |
| Publisher | Journal of Public Administration |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | |
| Rights | Journal of Public Administration |
| Relation | South African Journal of Public Management |
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