To blow or not to blow the whistle? That is the question

Abstract

Whistle blower was a word created in the 70s to specifically differentiate allegations from somebody from inside the company as opposed to allegations of a wrong doing by someone from outside the company. The agreed‐upon definition of whistle‐blowing has four components: 1) A person acts with the intention of making information public; 2) The information is transmitted to people outside the organisation who make it public and a part of the public record; 3) The information has to do with possible or actual nontrivial wrong doing in a company; and 4) The individual exposing the organisation is not a journalist or ordinary citizen, but an employee or former employee of the organisation. (Johnson, 2003:3‐4).