Implications for Organizations

Abstract

When studying whistleblowers, there is no way to separate them for the culture that engages in and condones retaliation. When there is no retaliation, organizations simply see engaged employees and a commitment to continuous process improvement. Leadership and organizational climate then are key factors for there to be a sea change around the whistleblowing conversation. Employees are committed to their mission when they become whistleblowers that will keep them on the job even when the environment is detrimental to their health and safety. So turnover alone is not a complete indication of a workplace culture. A contentious work environment where employees cannot trust each other, do not share information, feel marginalized, devalued, and shunned can have further serious consequences to the workplace. An unhealthy workplace is often associated with absenteeism and lost productivity, espionage, sabotage, and theft and in the most extreme can result in violence, or mass murder of coworkers. Therefore, the goal of this chapter is to offer the lessons learned from wrongdoing so that they can inform right doing and an organizational culture dedicated to making a workplace promise that is based on evidence from the World Health Organization and other studies on salutogenesis in the workplace.