Whistle-Blowing: Professionals' Resistance to Organizational Authority

Whistle-blowing is examined as an act of collective opposition to authority taking place within a context of political conflict. Organizations, viewed as private governments, provide members with numerous opportunities for political action to seek greater autonomy, to dissent from organizational policies, to oppose organizational authority, to depose existing leaders, and to transform the political structures within which they work. An in-depth case study of an incident of whistle-blowing is the basis for a series of propositions dealing with the preconditions for, and the process of whistle-blowing. Preconditions include structural features of organizations and some characteristics of careers and work roles that increase the likelihood of resistance to authority. The process of learning to oppose authority involves a series of escalated acts by professionals and management, and deterioration in the perception of motives attributed to each side in the dispute.