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 […]

“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 […]

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 […]

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, […]

  ATTACHMENT 1 Australia, Public Interest Disclosure Act 2013 (Aus. PIDA) Belgium, September 15, 2013. - Law on the Termination of a Suspected Violation of the Integrity in a Federal Administrative Authority by a Member of his Staff, (Belgium WPA), Bosnia, Law on Whistleblower Protection in the Institutions of Bosnia-Herzegovina, (Bosnia WPA) (2014) Canada, The […]

INTERNATIONAL BEST PRACTICES FOR WHISTLEBLOWER POLICIES   November 8, 2015   by Tom Devine, Legal Director, The Government Accountability Project (GAP) is a non-profit, nonpartisan public interest law firm that specializes in protection for genuine whistleblowers -- employees who exercise free speech rights to challenge institutional illegality, abuse of power or other betrayals of the […]

  Myths and Masks of Legislative Policy for Whistleblower Protection and how behavioural insights can assist in creating new standards of best practice. Over the last couple of weeks I participated in two events at opposite ends of the world, paralleled in focusing on whistleblowing and how to protect those who speak out. What became […]

  Virtue may have its place, but when the executioner's hand is near, weep your victim-hood as softly as you can. As a whistleblower who ‘won’ an eleven year war of attrition and secured justice I have been released from the entrapment of victimhood although I have been victimised.  My work involves tireless campaigning to […]

I attended the StandUpForTruth event at Birbeck University last Monday. http://standupfortruth.org/ A panel of whistleblowers sat on stage sharing their own stories of speaking truth to power and the resultant pain of being punished for doing the right thing and in the public interest. They, like most whistleblowers, including myself had felt unprotected, betrayed and abandoned. The […]

On the 2nd and 3rd of Sept 2015, I attended The International Behavioural Insights Conference in London. Hosted by the UK government’s ‘Nudge Unit’ (Behavioural Insights Team), the event included world renowned speakers such as Steve Pinker, Dan Ariely, Max Bazerman, Richard Thaler and Daniel Kahneman. I attended because in my experience, both as a […]

Corporate wrongdoing, political scandals, abuse and more are featured regularly and prominently in news reports.  Despite the many publications on ethics research there is still much to be done to acquire a body of knowledge that will impact real-world behaviour.  Because most of us are influenced by those around us when we make moral judgements […]

'Just as the whistleblower defies so many - not only the rest of the company, but the auditors and everyone who accepted the firm while it apparently did well - the whistleblower presents a challenge to us all.' Read the full article here: SpeakOut SpeakUp Whistleblowing as Doing the Right Thing 050615

Why do people assume that truth lies in numbers leading them to default to believing that the majority is probably correct? Majorities benefit from an assumption that they are correct and minorities are motivated to assume that majorities are correct because it permits them to move from ‘deviant’ to ‘belonging’.  Minorities do not have the luxury […]

“Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked” – Warren Buffett In 2008, whilst analysing patterns of ‘bad behaviour’ among bankers caught up in an epic financial crisis, I suggested that financial markets might benefit from a more behaviour-based approach to regulation: More focus on real Human interactions, less on […]

To date, a lot of focus has been placed on analysing the messengers of ‘bad’ news; often those whose quest to be heard results in them having to blow the whistle, often externally. In this blog, I’d like to flip the focus onto the recipients of ‘bad’ news, most often the leaders within organisations and […]

Open the newspaper, listen to the radio or turn on the television any day of the week and you are bound to discover one or more corruption scandals both in the government and private sectors.  Adjacent to these news items are most likely courageous employees who have uncovered mismanagement, law breaking, waste, fraud or abuse […]

http://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.asaqs.co.za/resource/resmgr/archive_news_2001/210701.pdf QUOTE: "Saturday 28 July 2001 Virgin Active sweats for Greenpoint lease Cape Town - Virgin Active had paid a "significant amount" to two former LeisureNet directors, Rod Mitchell and Peter Gardener, to secure the lease of The Point Sports Club in Greenpoint, one of the top five gyms in Virgin's stable of 76 it […]

As a corporate whistleblower who now presents and provides training to organisations, I have seen it over and over, so often that I'm rarely surprised anymore. Someone at work suggests doing something unethical, and instead of speaking out against it, everyone else either agrees or looks the other way. Alternatively and/or additionally small ethical lapses […]