Freedom of Speech Denied, Dignity Assaulted

This article attempts to answer a central puzzle in the field of whistleblower research: why, with the balance of corporate power arrayed against them, with assaults on their dignity, threats to their job security and with legal enforcement that is inadequate to protect the whistleblowers, do we see a growing number of whistleblowers in US society? This article identifies relevant shifts in the US occupational structure and economy, describes societal and organizational dynamics that lure individuals into disclosure of wrongdoing and managers into retaliation, and considers the pervasive effect upon the individual whistleblower of the whole escalating event into which they have been drawn. In order to show the relationship between the abridgement of employees' `right' to dissent and subsequent assaults on workers' dignity, this article summarizes aspects of the research literature to date that indicate the prevalence of management retaliation against whistleblowers, and considers the effect retaliation may have on others who observe similar organizational misconduct but refrain from voicing their concerns. Further, this article presents discouraging new evidence of how whistleblower cases filed so far under the Sarbanes—Oxley Act of 2002 have been adjudicated.