If conformism and obedience are basic elements in our culture, nonconformity, disobedience, and whistleblowing are vital for its progress. My mobile phone rang at 3.00 am. It was one of the CEOs on the line and his voice bristled with anger and indignation. "Get yourself over to the office now, this instant, and transfer the […]

“Get down, get down. Arms behind your back. Don’t move.”  I turned around to see two policemen, guns held out and pointed at a group of people sitting on the pavement. I perceived the targeted group to be middle aged hippies from the Woodstock era, apparently stoned and certainly no threat to anyone else.  Alarmed, […]

  No leader would readily say they wanted cowardice but until you’ve seen a workplace of confident, idea-sharing, risk-taking, conflict-engaging, openly dissenting people, it’s hard to know the difference. Courage is something that we want for ourselves in gluttonous portions and adore in others without qualification whilst cowardice, uncertainty, defensiveness and timidity are shunned and identified […]

There has been appropriate outrage at your actions in seeking to unmask a whistleblower at Barclays Bank. The angry rhetoric is a reaction to the misalignment with what the ‘Barclays Way Code of Conduct’ invites workers to do to raise concerns and your actual response. You hold a powerful position, you should know better. The Barclays […]

Helpful laws make things easier. Unhelpful laws do exactly the opposite, making everyone’s lives harder.  The problem is that unhelpful laws often end up in a kind of legal Bermuda Triangle with no one empowered or resourced to change them. A university student cautiously approached me following my lecture on Speaking Up and Whistleblowing. She […]

Life is filled with diverging paths, and which path one takes in life often defines one’s purpose. Many times, the paths are clearly illuminated so that it is obvious which is the right one and which is the wrong one. Should I help an old man who slipped on the pavement or just look the […]

The title of my blog is also a question to readers.  Before going any further write down your answer. Question Two: Who do you believe feels the most emotional pain as a result of their actions and social labeling?   Using the graphic below insert Saint, Sinner, Villain or Victim under the emoji you think best […]

Digressions from a moral code are often described as a series of small breaches that grow over time. My own experience underscores this where, in my whistleblowing case against the CEOs of LeisureNet Ltd, a part of my testimony was revealing what had begun as small ethical breaches which resulted in cascading into significant legal […]

‘Let’s do lunch next week’   ‘I’ll call you next Friday’    ‘I’ll send through the contract on Tuesday’    ‘Of course I’ll speak up’    ‘I’ll email you with the report’   ‘I’ll advance your concerns’ Ever had any of these said to you?  Perhaps you’ve said them yourself to others?  The bigger question is ‘did you […]

“It takes a team to pull off a good corporate fraud.” – Floyd Norris (New York Times, 2007) Have you ever been in a position when someone in a position of seniority has offered you a commission or an inducement to influence your behaviour? I have. One year before blowing the whistle on corporate malfeasance at […]

“To see the self as deceiving itself has seemed the only way to explain what might otherwise be incomprehensible: a person’s failure to acknowledge what is too obvious to miss” (Bok, 1989) Most of us would like to believe that if we had been at Enron or at any of the growing number of failing […]

Have you ever been in a situation when you’ve anticipated feeling negatively threatened, only to be surprised to experience the positive invigorating experience of challenge instead? Most of us have, whether it’s before a test, a competition, social interaction, public speaking or speaking up. New research from  Professor Mark D. Seery from the University of […]

A hand shot up from the lecture hall.  ‘I don’t understand’, a young Economics undergraduate said, looking perplexed, ‘surely a company’s executives would want to know about unethical practices in the organisation?’ I was lecturing on Corporate Governance at Warwick Business School and had just introduced the topic of Whistleblowing and Speaking Out to the […]

Like most whistleblowers I felt utterly alone before and after speaking out, especially in the knowledge that my peer group knew what I knew but had remained silent.   But what would or could have happened if I had asked individuals in my group to join me in speaking out, to become allies?  Just considering this […]

When last did you co operate without asking questions? In my own experience, as an executive team member who refused to co operate without asking, I was dismayed by my peers' bias to co operate blindly. It was partly due to their co operation that unethical practices cascaded into significant malfeasance and ultimately the demise […]

As a corporate professional operating as the Group Treasurer at Board level I found myself being the only female executive in my team.  As a result, I was mainly excluded from what I experienced as gender orientated-tribal behaviour; the back slapping boys club, often spoken over or crowded out. I was an outlier. However, it is […]

It happens every time.  As I walk off stage having shared my story of whistleblowing on the biggest corporate collapse in South Africa’s history, individuals converge to engage with me.  Some shake my hand and thank me for speaking out, others inquire about best whistleblowing practice or the laws protecting whistleblowers.  Others, feeling vulnerable, hang back […]

The new UK rules on personal responsibility places firms and senior managers into a new world of regulatory requirements and obligations. It remains to be seen how industry standards will develop to protect well-intentioned senior managers from being held responsible for their firms’ regulatory breaches and how firms might structure reporting lines to allow senior […]

ATTACHMENT 2 Australia PIDA, Provision (Prov.) sec. 10, 15. (all civil and criminal liability) Bosnia WPA, Art. 6. (criminal liability) Ghana WPA, Art. 18 (any civil and criminal liability) Hungary PIDA, Art. 11 (all civil and criminal liability -- “any action … which may cause disadvantage”) India WPA, Ch. IV.11 (1) (protection extends to all […]

The list below does not cover restrictions on disclosures of classified information. The criteria are restrictions for disclosures of unclassified information by national security/law enforcement whistleblowers, or due process anti-retaliation rights that are weak or non-existent compared to the rest of the whistleblower law. Canada PIDA (No provision to override Official Secrets Act) India WPA, […]