Whistleblowing, #metoo, and the messy shift toward a more equitable culture
What does this movement mean for whistleblowers everywhere?
In the second issue of Hyperlink Magazine (Oct 2017), I wrote about the phenomenon of whistleblowing, and how it pits the individual against the group, the quest for truth and justice against the demands of power and loyalty.
The whistleblower occupies a prickly space, as someone who chooses the daunting path of truth at great personal risk, forfeiting the stability and comfort of the status quo to highlight injustice.
Blowing the whistle can be a life-changing, life-defining decision for an individual—and almost always not for the better.
But why is whistleblowing such a risky endeavor? To understand why, we have to understand another element that plays a central role in this phenomenon. A whistleblower is a person who is part of an organization — be it a company, a branch of government, a church, or some other entity — in which that injustice is occurring.
The organization is both the context in which whistleblowing takes place, and the channel through which whistleblowers meet with these negative consequences of their actions.
By highlighting injustice within their organization, the whistleblower threatens the social cohesion, the power dynamics, of the organization. As a result, they risk retaliation from others within the organization who stand to lose from the whistleblowing.
And so whistleblowers are often ostracized, demoted, scapegoated, shunned, and terminated.
All because they’re seen as a threat to the organization.
But the emergence of the #metoo movement in recent months gives us a chance to reflect on the phenomenon of whistleblowing on a much larger scale than any individual organization.
#Metoo has highlighted an issue of widespread social importance and relevance—abuses of power in the form of sexual assault and harassment by men against women—one that cuts well across the lines of individual organizations, and even nations.
So what are the implications of the #metoo movement for the fate of whistleblowers—particularly women who stand up to abusive male superiors in their own organizations?
Are we in the throes of a powerful cultural shift, hopefully for the better?
These are questions I tackled in a wide-ranging conversation with Winning Edits’ Production Editor David Grabowski on a recent episode of the second season of the Hyperlink Radio podcast.
In addition to acknowledging the shortcomings of being two guys having a conversation about #metoo, we dug into several other topics related to the phenomenon of whistleblowing, including:
- The conflicting cultural assumptions that inform our attitude and behavior toward whistleblowers in the US.
- How the law can help whistleblowers, and how it falls short.
- What would-be whistleblowers must do before they blow the whistle.
- Whether David will blow the whistle on me for that time I stole his notebook.
- … and a lot more.
You can listen to our conversation right here.
And be sure to check out the rest of Season 2 of Hyperlink Radio, with new episodes weekly.
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