Workers’ voice and the right to manage – the case of whistleblowing in a comparative context

Workers are often the closest to uncovering illegal or unethical practices within organizations. It is crucial for a well-functioning work and business environment that employees report such issues and that management follows up on these reports. In this project, we place employers at the center of our analyses. Currently, we know little about what influences management’s assessments and handling of critical issues, both in terms of facilitating whistleblowing and managing reported issues. We also lack knowledge about the dilemmas and tensions that whistleblowing cases trigger, and how considerations related to the employer’s legitimate managerial rights and demands for employee loyalty affect employees’ freedom of expression. This project will provide such knowledge. The study will be conducted within banks and hospitals in Norway, Denmark, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. The project will provide knowledge that is important for understanding some of the fundamental elements of Norwegian working life, the relationship between the organization of working life, and the processes and mechanisms that make organizations competitive and innovative. It is particularly important that critical issues are uncovered in organizations that are central to the functioning of Norwegian society, such as those covered by our project, hospitals, and the banking sector. Throughout 2024, we have been working on analyzing findings from a survey conducted in the four countries, and policy briefs presenting the main findings from the survey, as well as a scientific article and a book chapter, have been published. Furthermore, qualitative interviews with managers and union representatives within banking/finance and hospitals in the four countries have been conducted. This work will continue until the end of the year. Subsequently, the data from both the survey and the qualitative interviews will be analyzed, and findings will be published. In 2024, work has also been done to create a synopsis for a scientific anthology within the series Comparative Social Research, which will be published by Emerald Publishing towards the end of 2025. Finally, Fafo, in collaboration with the Institute for Social Research, organized the International Whistleblowing Research Network Conference in Oslo from June 20 to 21, which attracted researchers from various countries in and outside Europe.

Our aim is to obtain new knowledge on what makes employers suppress or encourage workers raising concerns. This will contribute to a better understanding of how employers balance two fundamental but possibly conflicting democratic principles: the property right and freedom of speech. We employ a multilevel and inter-disciplinary comparative approach inspired by institutional theory. The project combines legal method and social sience, and will make use of survey data, document analyses and qualitative interviews. WP1 will study how the right to manage and the protection of whistleblowers are balanced in national law, both identifying the intention of the legislator, how this is played out in preporatory work and case law. The countries included (Norway, Denmark, Ireland and the UK) have different law systems and employment systems. Different regulations, such as the level of overall employment protection, may reinforce or curb the exercise of whistleblowing. WP2 will examine how national law are filtered through sector level characteristics and transposed into guidelines at organisational level in banks and hospitals. In both sectors, law and professional ethics impose a duty on staff to raise concerns in certain situations. One question is how this duty is reflected in internal procedures. Drafting procedures can mobilise power resources of the parties involved, who will try to adapt and apply rules in a way that is consistent with their interests. The outcome can thus deviate from legislative intentions. WP3 will identify and explain observed conformity or tensions in organisations, and the impact of different employment systems when it comes to how legal rules and guidelines are practiced at organisational level. Can whistleblowing and its responses, be linked to the design of procedures, how the notion of the right to manage is translated into practice and whether the raising of concerns is supported by co-workers and workers’ representatives?