Exploring the trajectory of moral courage in whistleblowing at work: actual whistleblowers’ lived experiences

Abstract

Wrongdoings at work have the potential to harm the interests of individuals, organizations and the wider society, making it necessary that they get reported to prevent adverse consequences. Accordingly, whistleblowing at work, which is “the disclosure by organisation members of illegal, immoral or illegitimate practices under the control of their employers, to persons or organisations that may be able to effect action” (Near & Miceli, 1985, p. 5), becomes relevant. The importance of courage, particularly moral courage, in the context of whistleblowing has been highlighted by many research scholars in the past; yet, its role has been underexplored. To fill this void, the current study explored the trajectory of moral courage in whistleblowing at work through actual whistleblowers’ lived experiences. van Manen’s (1990) hermeneutic phenomenology was adopted to explore the lived experiences of 24 whistleblowers across various kinds of organizations, organizational levels, occupations, sectors and geographical locations in India. The study took D’Cruz and Bjorkelo’s (2016) contextualized process model of whistleblowing at work as its theoretical point of departure to explore the lived experiences of moral courage among whistleblowers. Following van Manen (1990), the data, gathered through in-depth interviews, were thematically analyzed, leading to the identification of three core themes, namely, ‘moral courage with minimal fear’, ‘moral courage with tractable fear’ and ‘moral courage with excessive fear’. Each core theme comprised major themes, themes and sub-themes. Various trustworthiness criteria were followed to ensure methodological rigour. The study shows that fear may not be central in the conceptualization of moral courage; yet, it plays a quintessential role in impacting whistleblowers’ trajectory and nature of moral courage to blow the whistle. The study validates D'Cruz and Bjorkelo’s (2016) contextualized process model of whistleblowing by showing the importance and interaction of organizational, situational and societal factors, beyond individual factors. In so doing, the study adds to the existing knowledge on the link between moral courage and whistleblowing by showing how a plethora of factors operating at multiple levels of analysis together impact the moral courage of whistleblowers.