What motivates internal whistleblowing? A typology adapted to the French context

Abstract

Transparency and ethics are nowadays often cited as a way to remedy various difficulties faced by companies. However, whistleblowing employees who are an example of this are potentially confronted with silence or reprisals. The researchers have sought to apprehend the reasons pushing to whistleblow but the motivations are complex. Although some studies have tried to create profiles of whistleblowers, they have been led in cultural and legislative contexts where the whistleblower may be internal or external to the company, act out of revenge, or be financially rewarded for the information reported, none of which the Sapin II law in France permits. Using a qualitative method based on ten life narratives from French employees who have whistleblown, our article seeks to understand their primary motivations for taking this action. The research will first present the French definition of a whistleblower and the motivations identified in the Anglo-Saxon context from which most studies originate. Following the detailed presentation of the methodology, we will explain the typology of four profiles obtained from the analysis of our results and discuss similarities/differences with the Anglo-Saxon work. In a context where many organizations are promoting the establishment of a genuine ethical and democratic spirit, this typology will aim to identify the arguments that can be used upstream to encourage the process. It can also be used as a tool for training managers and employees to better understand whistleblowing, explaining to them that it is part of a predominantly positive approach, thereby limiting reprisals and stimulating the feedback on dysfunctions within the organization.