Whistleblower as Broker: Social Networks of the 2017 Hollywood Whistleblowers

Abstract

We study the network structure of the 2017 Hollywood whistleblowers—who, despite career risks, identified sexual harassers in the industry. Whereas brokerage is often associated with access to positive resources, whistleblowers broker negative resources. The whistleblower-as-broker: 1) Threatens certain powerful ingroup members by revealing their unethical behavior to an audience; 2) Faces significant risk from exclusive occupancy of the structural hole; and 3) Benefits by attracting others to it. We propose that this unique role is ideally filled by the Protected Broker, who has both the informational power of an open network, and a protective shell of support. Exploratory analyses reveal that brokers who had high proportion of women in the network were less likely to be whistleblowers. One explanation is that protected brokers remained silent, and the other is that they were protected, and therefore victimized less. A follow up analysis of whistleblowers only revealed that protected brokerage predicted speed of whistleblowing—suggesting that this network composition empowered rather than inhibited action. We consider distinct types of protection (status via Oscar nominations, centrality, and proportion of women in the network), finding effects for only gender. We characterize whistleblowing, not as a solo act, but as contagious and dynamic over time, with protected brokers simultaneously insulated from threat, and driving social change when they confront it.