{"id":1380,"date":"2019-11-21T12:41:08","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T23:41:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.reportitnow.co.nz\/?p=1380"},"modified":"2019-11-21T12:41:08","modified_gmt":"2019-11-20T23:41:08","slug":"whistle-while-you-work-the-truth-about-whistleblowing-down-under","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reportitnow-global.com\/sg\/whistle-while-you-work-the-truth-about-whistleblowing-down-under\/","title":{"rendered":"Whistle while you work: The truth about whistleblowing Down Under"},"content":{"rendered":"

Griffith University’s three year research project into the nature of whistleblowing across the public and private sectors in New Zealand and Australia offers starting insight into the nature of whistleblowing Down Under.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

The related research document, <\/span>Whistleblowing: New rules, new policies, new vision<\/span><\/i><\/a> [pdf] draws on interviews with 46 public, private and not-for-profit sector organisations in Australia and New Zealand, with a total of 17,778 individual responses collected. It\u2019s one of the world\u2019s largest studies into whistleblowing, and the first large-scale project to focus on management of whistleblowing across business and government.<\/span><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s take a look at some of the key findings of the document:<\/span><\/p>\n

Public vs Private<\/b><\/p>\n

According to the research, there is a surprising similarity in the basic nature and dynamics of whistleblowing between public and private sector respondents.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cReporting rates in the public sector organisations were only slightly higher than in the private sector (74% vs 69%), neither sector used external reporting paths to a great degree, and both sectors only used a mixture of reporting paths when there was a mixture of wrongdoing types.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis underscores that questions of how best to manage whistleblowing are not likely to be answered by the sector involved but by organisational and management dynamics that cut across all types of organisations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Whistleblowing works…<\/b><\/p>\n

According to the research, reporting is widely supported. Contrary to many stereotypes, reporting led to positive investigation outcomes and organisational changes and reforms in a large proportion of cases.<\/span><\/p>\n

…but rarely for the whistleblower themselves<\/b><\/p>\n

Outcomes for whistleblowers are, however, far less positive.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cReporters responded that they were treated badly by their management or colleagues in 42 per cent of cases. Public sector whistleblowers were mistreated in almost exactly the same proportions as recorded a decade ago by the first WWTW project. Reporters experienced negative repercussions in up to 81 percent of cases.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recognising \u2018mixed\u2019 public interest and grievance wrongdoing types, and the significance of \u2018collateral\u2019 or informal detrimental effects (not just reprisals) seems key to achieving better reporter outcomes.<\/span><\/p>\n

AU vs NZ<\/b><\/p>\n

Results reveal little comparatively little variation in terms of the prevalence of different forms<\/span><\/p>\n

of wrongdoing observed between Australian and New Zealand public sector jurisdictions, although New Zealand respondents did report the prevalence of workplace bullying at a slightly higher rate.<\/span><\/p>\n