MA HRM Dissertation: Impact of Whistleblowing on NHS Organisation

This dissertation explores the impact of whistleblowing on organisational learning within the National Health Service (NHS). It begins by introducing the concept of whistleblowing, highlighting its controversial nature and the potential sacrifices faced by whistleblowers. The research delves into the background of whistleblowing within the NHS context, discussing relevant legislation and the importance of protecting employee rights. It examines the rationale for the research, focusing on the need to understand the causes and effects of whistleblowing on employees and the organization. The study uses secondary analysis to investigate the research topic. The findings suggest that despite efforts to encourage employees to raise concerns, healthcare systems internationally struggle to involve employees, and that concerns are often ignored. The dissertation concludes with recommendations, including training, financial incentives, and endorsement from top management, to improve the effectiveness of whistleblowing mechanisms within the NHS. Desklib provides access to similar dissertations and study tools for students.

Running head: DISSERTATION
Dissertation
Name of the Student
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Author Note

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Abstract
This research project analyses the impact of Whistle Blowing on Organisational Learning in
National Healthcare Service. This report explores the impact of whistle-blowing on the NHS
and its employees. The introductory chapter of the research provides the behind whistle
blowing, who and what make a person will blow the whistle in an organisation (Liu, Liao and
Wei 2015). A whistle blower could be a member of staff, a contractor or a patient’s family
who reveals an unethical or illegal practice, or any sort of wrongdoings in the organisation.
Although, whistle blowers have made a significant contribution to patient safety, it remains
as a controversial agenda. Such fate of whistle blowers remains bleak, which could result in
personal and professional sacrifices. The findings of existing indicate the fact that whistle
blowing remains general shorthand for a situation where an organizational member exposes
information or any unscrupulous activity in the work-place that is considered illegal,
unethical leading to harm. Likewise, the existing provided another contradictory fact that
before reporting to the concerned authority, respective individual whistle-blowers should
make some assessment, which could include weighing the decision from the perspective of
cost and benefit. Review of existing papers has provided multiple facts about whistle
blowing, its process, impact and consequences. However, the findings of the studies are quite
generic; studies did not provide or mention about any real-world facts and findings related to
whistle blowing in an organizational context. This significant gap has been used in the study
as the scope for performing the analysis considering the real-world facts. The findings of the
study reveals that despite the fact that organizations encouraging staffs to raise concern about
the wrongdoings, the healthcare system internationally struggle to involve employees in the
scam (Cho and Song 2015). In some particular cases, where the employees raise the
concerns, those with the authority to listen and respond ignore them often. The study provides

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three significant suggestions such as “Conduct training”, financial incentives,
endorsement from top management and these are further elaborated in the study.

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Table of Content
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................5
1.1 Introduction......................................................................................................................5
1.2 Background to the research..............................................................................................6
1.3 Background to the organization.......................................................................................7
1.4 Rationale of the research..................................................................................................8
1.5 Research Aim and Objectives..........................................................................................9
1.6 Research aim and objectives..........................................................................................10
1.7 Research Questions........................................................................................................10
1.8 Outlining the chapters in the research............................................................................10
1.9 Summarizing the chapter................................................................................................12
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW.................................................................................13
2.1 Introduction....................................................................................................................13
2.2 Whistleblowing..............................................................................................................13
2.3 Theoretical underpinning...............................................................................................16
2.4Advantages and disadvantage of whistle-blowing..........................................................20
2.5 Impact of whistle blowing on employees.......................................................................22
2.6Empirical findings...........................................................................................................23
2.7Impact of whistleblowing on the management of the organizations...............................24
2.8Factors leading to whistleblowing in NHS.....................................................................26
2.9Response and learning of the organizations (NHS) towards whistleblowing.................28
2.10 Gaps in the literature....................................................................................................30

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CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.....................................................................31
3.1 Introduction....................................................................................................................31
3.2 Research philosophy......................................................................................................31
3.3 Research Approach........................................................................................................32
3.4 Research Design.............................................................................................................33
3.5 Data Collection method..................................................................................................33
3.6 Data Analysis.................................................................................................................34
3.7 Ethical Consideration.....................................................................................................35
3.8 Research Limitation.......................................................................................................35
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS.........................................................................36
4.1 Introduction....................................................................................................................36
4.2 Secondary Analysis........................................................................................................36
4.3 Discussion......................................................................................................................44
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION................................................46
5.0 Conclusion..........................................................................................................................46
5.2 Recommendation............................................................................................................47
References................................................................................................................................49
Reflective Statement................................................................................................................57

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Topic- “The impact of Whistle Blowing in Organisation Learning In NHS”
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Introduction
It is inevitable that healthcare workers during the long period of their career could
witness and actual or the potential threats to patient safety. Hence, some of these threats
could result in serious harms occurring to others, while sometimes such threats could result in
a least harm. In spite of the fact that healthcare service providers are encouraging employees
to share their concerns in terms of the threats, healthcare system in an internationally struggle
to engage their employees to do the same. The governments and the regulatory bodies have
made several acts for the protection of employee rights and the dismissal of many
unscrupulous activities. Particularly, The Act formed in 1998 did not have any issue in
blacklisting the whistle-blowers. It is identified that the employment Tribunal System (ET) is
not a low-cost and informal solutions to resolve PIDA issues. However, there is a criticism
that there is no administrative alternative to ET systems, which whistle blowers may
approach the court if any difference occurs to them.
An individual organizational member or the contractor who reveals about the illegal,
unethical or any sort of wrong-doings in the organization that is performed by an individual
or the group implement the practice of whistle blowing as the disclosure of information. It is
certain that a whistle blower has the access to the source of information of the business, as
that person is insider of the organizations and has proper understanding regarding the
organization (Bourne et al. 2015). Many studies have been performed to identify and analyse
the impact on whistle blowers in an organization but most of these studies are based in United
State and other nations. Hardly any research has been performed considering the healthcare
services in UK. Thus, the purpose of this is to discuss and evaluate the impact of whistle

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blowers of whistleblowing in organizational learning under NHS. National Health Service
(NHS) is widely known for its top class services revolving around mental health issues and
the organization delivers the unique needs of aged population as well as commitment towards
the health issues (Park, Blenkinsopp and Park 2014).
1.2 Background to the research
As put forward by Liu, Liao and Wei (2015), whistle blowing delivers a pathway for the
healthcare workers to express or share their concern particularly when there is a breach of
patients’ safety. Nonetheless, Bourne et al. (2015) here commented that many healthcare
organisations have policies in place to prevent reprisals on whistle blowers. In spite of such
as protective measures, whistle blowing often lead to negative results. However, there is a
state of doubt that whistle blowing could be a creditable endeavour, even though, there is a
scarcity of coverage in the literature of cases that detail the manner in which the whistle
blowers lead to enhanced patient safety (Nhs.uk 2018). Thus, there is an indirect evidence
which supports the argument that a whistle-blowing culture could be creditable, which
consists of retrospective analysis of several cases in which significant failing of safety can
occur because of the whistle blowers remain in the back of the incident. Therefore, this sort
of reflective analysis has made the attempts to normalize whistle-blowing as one of the
significant approach of enhancing safety. Nonetheless, considerable work to be done to make
sure and show that whistle-blowing informs safety prospectively instead of belatedly
knowing learning from whistle-blowers once the damaged has already occurred to patients or
the organizational members.
There is a question that whether there is any solid proof for the existence of prospective
system of organizational learning from employees’ concern? Such system particularly in UK
is conventionally indefinable. Nonetheless, the work presently being performed with respect
to the recent failures to learn from employee concerns’ indicate that change may be looming.

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According to Ashton (2015), due to the move towards the care, the increased competition
amongst the healthcare organizations and the requirement to cut costs to remain competitive,
an individual make assumptions that the condition, which give rise to typical instances of
whistle blowing, could continue to deteriorate. In this context, Cho and Song (2015)
commented that whittle blowing need not to occur as there could be internal procedure to
resolve the issues. According to this author, whistle blowing remains as a moral action of last
resort and under a particular circumstance, it is not only effective but essential. As put
forward by Park, Blenkinsopp and Park (2014), whistle blowing is referred to action of
warning, which is issued by a member or former member of an organization to public
regarding serious unscrupulous activity within the business or the organization.
1.3 Background to the organization
National Health Service launched in 1948 and it was found with the purpose of making
healthcare available to all, irrespective of wealth (Nhs.uk 2018). The establishment of NHS
helps to enhance the public health services UK. In addition, NHS in England deals with over
1 million patients in every 36 years. It may cover everything major mental health service,
routine screenings, treatments for long-time conditions, transplant and old-life care. NHS
presently had 1.5 million people and it holds the 5th position in world’s top five largest
workforce firm (Nhs.uk 2018). Particularly, in NHS, the total number of clinically qualified
staff includes 150,273 doctors, 40,583 general practitioners (Nhs.uk 2018). Although, NHS
is known for its high and unique quality of healthcare services but in the recent time, the
incident of Mid-Stafford have tarnished the image of the quality service of NHS and led the
setting to make whistle blowing. NHS provides Whistle Blowers Support Scheme could offer
a range of services with the inclusion of career coaching, financial advice as well as
mediation for primary care staff who suffered due to increasing concerns about the practices
followed in National Health Service. The setting also applied a working transaction to operate

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the pilot until March 2018. The scheme has been developed with the help of former staff,
who experienced whistle blowing and the influence it can have on the employees.
Nonetheless, Wainberg and Perreault (2015) mentioned that some individuals who have
increased the concerns observe experience severe difficulties when asking for a re-
employment in the health care service. This indicates that they are particularly excluded from
the capability of working in their selected field. The present scenario clearly indicates that the
organization requires to amend its whistle blowing policies.
1.4 Rationale of the research
Investigation in United Kingdom into mistreatment of aged people by healthcare
employees over to the last three decades have focussed on introducing or supporting
employee whistle blowing. Even though whistle blowers have made a significant contribution
to patient safety, it remains as a controversial agenda. Such fate of whistle blowers remains
bleak, which could result in personal and professional sacrifices. Whistle blowers have been
characterized in the existing studies as the courageous employees who usually act to maintain
the standards “against the might of faceless organization”. In this context, Park, Blenkinsopp
and Park (2014) commented that whistle blowers are also the malcontents, who could stop at
nothing to follow their agenda irrespective of destructive and negative outcome of their
actions for colleagues and organizations.
Nonetheless, whether the whistle blower is considered as the hero or the
troublemaker, it remains as the anomalous natured of whistle-blowing that it creates special
interest to those individual researching the care of vulnerable groups. Gao, Greenberg and
Wong-On-Wing (2015) argued that even though the development has been made in
comprehending the nature of whistle-blowing but the question still remains which may or
may not be due to the tendency by policy makers and scholars to oversimplify the ways that
concern regarding the quality of care dealt in the workplace setting. Park, Blenkinsopp and

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Park (2014) performed a research and found that a tendency in the papers to insist on
dichotomous choice between the silence and the whistle blowing and so when they face the
wrong doings, an organizational member can make the decision of either to remain silent or
respond by blowing the whistle. In addition, it has been identified that those individuals who
seek attention to possible wrongdoings within the firm are the subjects of much controversy.
According to, Andon et al. (2016) whistle blowers are noble characters, who intend to
sacrifice personally and professionally to expose organizational practices that remain
wasteful and fraudulent to the public safety. While, Guerciet al. (2015) mentioned that
whistle-blowers are mainly disgruntled employees who unkindly accuse individuals they feel
have harmed to attain their own selfish goals. However, there is a series of arguments on
whistle blowing on organizations. Therefore, it is yet unclear how or to what extent whistle
blowing can affect the organization. Thus, it is highly necessary to conduct a research to learn
the cause of whistle blowing and its impact on the employees. It also focuses on the manner
in which organizational learning about whistle blowing is processed.
1.5 Research Aim and Objectives
 To recognize the factors which leads to whistle blowing in NHS (as an organisation)
 To determine the rate of impact of whistle blowing on the employees
 To understand the impact on the management of the organisation
 To identify the advantages and disadvantage of the process
 To explore the response and learning of the organisations (NHS) towards whistle
blowing and protecting the interests of the whistle-blowers
 To seek recommendations to protect the whistle-blower and make the organisation
more accountable

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1.6 Research aim and objectives
The aim of the research is to understand the degree of impact of whistle blowing in
organisation learning.
The objective of the research:
 To recognize the factors which leads to whistle blowing
 To determine the rate of impact of whistle blowing on the employees
 To understand the impact on the management of the organisation
 To identify the advantages and disadvantage of the process
1.7 Research Questions
 R1 what are the factors which leads to whistle blowing?
 R2 what is the rate of impact of whistle blowing on the employees?
 R3 what is the impact on the management of the organisation?
 R4 what are the advantages and disadvantage of whistle blowing in organisation
learning?
1.8 Outlining the chapters in the research
Chapter 1: Introduction
This is the introductory chapter of the project work, which mainly introduces the topic
and background to the topic. On the basis of the background presented, research objectives
and questions have been formed which further leads to a detailed review of existing papers on
whistle blowing in the next chapter.
Chapter 2: Literature Review
This paper provides a detailed review of the existing studies that have been conducted
on whistle blowing. The purpose of this review is to derive an understanding about how the

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organizations are dealing with the practice of whistle-blowing as well as whistle blowers. The
review helps to know that although, healthcare origination provides appropriate guidelines for
blowing whistle to notify the wrong-doings in the organization, due to the mistreatment from
the seniors, fear of being in the limelight, many employees remain silent despite the
transparency in the policies. This review will help to know the manner in which the whistle-
making policies are formulated and implemented on the identified scenario. The review also
helps to identify the gaps in the previous study, which is supposed to be fulfilled in the
present study.
Chapter 3: Research Methodology
This chapter presents a set of research techniques, which have been used to perform
the research. The application of research techniques determines the outcome of the research.
The concept of research paradigm used in the study is a set of beliefs and agreements that is
usually shared between the social scientist. The study includes the strategy of ethnographic
and case study analysis (Skivenes and Trygstad 2017). Particularly, this ethnographic
technique of the study is associated with social interaction and cultural groups that are figured
out to be the groups as communities, societies and organizations. Ethnography technique has
been used because it provides a deeper understanding of the design issue with the inclusion of
pertinent domain like audience, processes, context and goals. The secondary data has been
collected to engage with the relevant literature as well as investigate the organizational
structure of NHS and the history of whistle blowing to conceptualize the study.
Chapter 4: Findings and Analysis
This chapter presents the data and the findings with charts and tables. The chapter also
includes the analysis of the collected data. The analysis of qualitative data has done by

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linking the data with the findings of the literature review. Likewise, an interview analysis has
been conducted in the chapter with different themes derived from the qualitative questions.
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendation
This is a final chapter of the dissertation, which concludes the entire research work with a
proper implication. A set of recommendation has also been provided in the chapter to address
the issues related to whistle blowing in NHS.
1.9 Summarizing the chapter
This chapter of the dissertation holds the backbone of the entire research project as it
effectively introduces the topic along with a detailed background. Background of the study
presents the facts that there are certain procedures and norms which should be followed
before blowing the whistle. Wrongful activities in the workplace are subject to negative
consequences; but the whistle blowers need to be cautious about the action as inadequate
evidences can hamper the image of the organization as well as the individual. On the basis of
the background provided, research aim and objectives have been formed which stand as pillar
of review of existing papers.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Introduction
This chapter discusses and provides the findings of the literature on the impact of
whistle-blowers on whistle-blowing on organizational learning under National Health Service
London. The purpose of the review is to derive an understanding from the viewpoints of the
scholars on how whistle blowers influence the organization. In order to conduct the review of
literature almost twenty five journal articles and books have been used. The impact of whistle
blowing is a significant context which needs to be reviewed because a greater support is
required to deal with emotional consequence of whistle blowing.
2.2 Whistleblowing
As put forward by Liu, Liao and Wei (2015), whistle blowing remains a general
shorthand for a situation where an organizational member exposes information or any
unscrupulous activity in the work-place that is considered illegal, unethical leading to harm.
According to Bourne et al. (2015), the Mid Staffordshire Public inquiry disclosed that a
catalogue of preventable concerns regarding how whistle blowing is usually managed. The
study has particularly mentioned that there are different factors which could affect whistle
blowing including the expectation of staff loyalty and the assumptions that the NHS provides
the best health service in the world. On the other side, Posey, Roberts and Lowry (2015)
mentioned that whistle blowing is never an easy option. People prefer to be accepted by those
around them and conform to group norms and accept instructions from those in the authority
and even when their actions could harm others. Skivenes and Trygstad (2017) performed a
study and provided a Francis Report which helps to identify that staff have the fear about
revealing and when they did speak about the internal procedure, the senior staff in the
organisations were hostile towards them and strongly defended the sub-standards practices.

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On the other hand, Ciasullo, Cosimato and Palumbo (2017) mentioned that whistle
blowers of the past elucidates problems still faced presently within National Health Service.
Here,Ashton (2015) argued that 1960s have observed a significant controversy around the
long-stay institution. The authors have also mentioned that even though the 1960s did not
seem to be the time of NHS austerity, the resources were unevenly allocated. A study
performed by Gao, Greenberg and Wong-On-Wing (2015), mentioned that psychiatric
hospital from which most of the reports come from, remained consistently less and it was
effectively funded than the general hospital and in under such setting, the long stay wards
remained as the least well resourced. According to the authors, Hospital Plan (1962) focused
on expanding general hospital as well as community care and the execution process remained
slower for long. Furthermore, it has also been identified that Psychiatric hospitals tend to
designate for closure and receive little attention, which adds to their Cinderella. Some of the
barriers, they face provide understanding which is relevant to National Health Service today.
Blowing the whistle in organizations
A study performed on whistle blowing performed by Mannion and Davies (2015), the
role of whistleblowing remains very critical because it could stop wrong and unethical
activities and address the issues. In the same context, Bashir et al. (2011), whistleblowing
serves as a control mechanism to identify as well as prevent wrong doing activities in the
workplace. Particularly, when the wrongful activities remain serious, it may impact the
overall business of the organisations significantly and here whistleblowing could serve as a
protection. As the consequence, the use of resource can be saved and performance can be
enhanced, which eventually improves the effectiveness of the control system. The author of
this study has also mentioned that on a frequent basis, organizations or the related parties may
retaliate on the reporting. On the contrary, a study performed by Lachman (2008), mentioned
that whistleblowing might also cause disharmony in the organization. According to this

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author, it might destroy the victim’s business’s public image. In most of the instances, the
initial reporting such as tips could trigger further investigation on some reported cases.
Taking the future implications in consideration of such actions, studies demonstrate that
employees of the organization who tend to contemplate to report wrong activities are
supposed to be anonymous, particularly the employees in smaller organizations. In addition, a
study conducted by Posey, Roberts and Lowry (2015), reveals the fact that employees may
blow the whistle outside the organisations when they have strong evidence for wrongdoings.
However, it is also stated as a necessity for the employees for reporting the wrongdoing
activities internally before bringing the matter to public because this might be less harmful to
the victim of the organizations and moreover, it is less risky to the whistle-blowers.
Whistleblowing process
According to Mannion and Davies (2015) some studies tend to argue on the nature of
whistleblowing decision, particularly, whether it remains as a process or direct decision call
made by individual employees. According to the author, before reporting to the concerned
authority, respective individual whistle-blowers should make some assessment which could
include weighing the decision from the perspective of cost and benefit. In this context, Bashir
et al. (2011) mentioned that decision to blow the whistle could involve a range of process at
least four key significant elements such as the act of whistleblowing, the whistle blowing
recipient and the victim organization. In general, the technique to blow the whistle begins
with the decision taken by the individual employees, whether a specific practice in the
organization is considered unethical. By considering such action as the wrongdoing, the
organizational members then could decide whether or not to create a report. However, such
judgment may contain several perspectives. The above-mentioned study ascertains the fact
that decision is mostly depending on the seriousness of wrongdoings as well as exposure to

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reporting effectiveness. Apart from this fact, the individual employees may consider
reporting effectiveness.
Therefore, in this regard, the literature reveals the individuals are more likely to report
when they believe that the disclosure could be able to prevent the wrong activities so that
they have no other alternatives to do the same. Hence, Posey, Roberts and Lowry (2015)
commented that reporting decision can also be influenced by some conditions and due to
some personal characteristics of the potential whistle-blowers. Thereafter, on receiving the
report, the victim organizations could make an appropriate responses. The studies highlight
that the response remains significant as it reflects firm’s attitude towards whistleblowing and
this might create an impact on employees’ evaluation on the range of their personal cost to
report. Greene and Latting (2004) performed a study and recommend thatthe quality of
information about the illegal or wrong doings and the anticipated organizational response are
significant throughout whistleblowing process. Significantly, the response to wrongdoing
need to be carefully considered because it might be inappropriate, in spite of the attempt to be
rational. Moreover, this response could differ significantly on the basis of whether the
individual reporter is internal or outside the business. Such statementseffectively supported
because it was discovered that disclosure in the external environment remains more effective
in changing organizationalpractice compared to the internal reporting.
2.3 Theoretical underpinning
It is found that due to the nature of complexity, there is no such single theory which
could adequately describe the characteristics of the whistle blowing. However, the studies
conducted earlier have incorporated models from several theory to describe the decisions
talent for whistle blowing – such as the theory of pro-social behaviour, bystander intervention
theory and expectancy theory. Notwithstanding, the relationship between the variables is
somewhat inclusive.

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Social exchange theory
According to Birtch, Chiang and Van Esch (2016), humans are or treated as the social
creature and they could socialize as well as cooperate among each to remain active or to
survive in general. In several cases, the humans could expect return on their actions towards
the others. Thomas et al. (2014) on their human behaviour studies have described this as the
situation as the process of social exchange, which could lead towards the development of
social exchange theory. On the other side, Yan et al. (2016) mentioned that theory of social
exchange is depended or based on the quality of mutual exchange among the related entities.
Nonetheless, Liu et al. (2016) considers this theory as mostly debatable; thereby, more
intensive studies are required to focus particularly on some issues like conceptual roots,
norms and rules of exchange and the nature of exchange resources as well as the connection
of social exchange. A significant hypothesis assumed by this particular theory is that the
social exchange techniques might have a strong impact on the feeling of obligation between
the parties involved. On the basis of this perspective, scholars are in the dilemma to further
understand whether the norms and rules of exchange from the social setting could also be
assimilated in a business context. So, a more significant concern is that can anyone develop
the impact of social exchange theory, on the basis of an employee-organization perspectives
on a whistleblowing decisions.
Organizational support theory
In spite of the fact that social exchange theory regards social communication among
human beings, the core philosophy of social exchange theory is transferable or can be
translated into organizational context, which further emerges with organizational exchange
theory. In a general sense, the theory of organizational support could examine organization’s
readiness to provide employees with rewards due to their increased efforts and socio-

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emotional requirements. In this context, Jackson et al. (2010) commented that such
perspective remains crucial in understanding the relationship between the employees and
organizational relationship, within and beyond the scope of employment contact. Thus, it
could describe the exchange between loyalty and effort for the advantages and rewards. A
study performed by Jones (2016) reflected that the organizational members tend to associate
their organization, which remains as a partner of social exchange, with the characteristics of
individuals. It is identified that such personification is highly required to validate
interpersonal commitment between two significant entities. Such technique could cover a
series of responsibilities such as legal, financial and moral of organizations’ agent that in
general considers the policies, culture and norms in business. In addition, action of the agents
of the organization is usually considered as organizational intent, rather than agents’ personal
motive. It can be ascertained that such perspective is crucial because it could suggest that
significant reciprocity may not occur when they employees considers that those treatments
are provided willingly.
Perceived organizational support
On the basis of the concept of the reciprocity, the scholars in organizational studies develop a
significant term called perceived organizational support which could cover a two-phased
process. Ko and Hur (2014) performed a study and found that individuals employees tend to
make evaluation of organization’s treatment which they observe. Particularly, the authors of
this study have highlighted the fact that organizational members could make assessment and
develop a general belief of the extent to which active organizations tend values their
contribution and take care of the growth and development. This study also indicate the fact
that considering the extent of the reciprocal relationship, such perception of reinforces
organizational members’ effort to achieve organizational goals. On the other side, decades
ago, Kurtessiset al. (2017) performed a study and found that perceived organizational support

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is based on the absenteeism and it was found that the respondents with increasing perceived
organizational support could less likely be absent at work. This particularly study also
highlight the fact that perceived organizational support relates to job satisfaction, particularly
at it meets socio-emotional needs of organizational employees. Therefore, the authors suggest
to build a significant relationship with organizational justice, support from the supervisors,
healthy conditions as well as favourable organizational rewards. All such perspective tend to
demonstrate that employees tend to show a significant commitment toward their current
employer when they have a belief that they have two-way communicative relationship that
could go beyond formal responsibilities towards each other. The study also asserts that such
relationship could reflect the organizational citizenship behaviour.
On the basis of the findings, it can be mentioned that employees’ whistle blowing behaviour
in organizational remains significant to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of internal
operational system. It is worth mentioning that while the discussion on this decision were
observed to be varied in different context, the existing studies do not differentiate the role of
several perspectives which lead to the actions. Nonetheless, the attention can be biased and
thereby the efforts to create a balance between these opinions are required. Therefore, by
resolving whistleblowing decisions on the basis of a theoretical perspectives, the author’s
suggest that social exchange theory deliveries a significant understanding into the object.
Moreover, in an organizational context, it is worth mentioning that organizational support
theory often contributes to a comparable purpose.
Essentially, the theory of organizational support provides another significant concept that the
relationship between employees and organizations should be reciprocal. Therefore, they
could reciprocate the treatment that they get. Such judgment is known as a perceived
organizational support. The finding of the studies present above indicate that fact that the
effect of such reciprocal relationship could increase or strengthen the commitment ties which

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is between the two parties. So, here the employees may tend to show a strong commitment
towards the organization when their perceived organizational support remains high. Such
commitment is shown with the help of the actions that are carried out in the organization’s
best interest. Lastly, in this context, it can be mentioned that whistle-blowing is claimed to
satisfy this condition because the decision is meant to benefit the organization.
2.4Advantages and disadvantage of whistle-blowing
As put forward by Cho and Song (2015), when a government employee or the
employee of a private organisations reveals an illegal news, unsafe or unethical conduct
regarding their employer, that employee could blow the whistle on that employer or the
organization for the behaviour. The action of blowing the whistle on corrupt firms could
create a strong influence, including both positive and negative (Guerciet al. 2015). A study
performed by Park, Blenkinsopp and Park (2014), have mentioned about some of the
advantages and disadvantage of whistle blowing.
Advantages: Exposing the unethical behaviour
According to Caillier (201.), the whistle-blower usually serve as a vital function in
government and business. This paper also provides another fact that when the government
and corporation agencies tend to step over legal and ethical lines, whistle blowers could make
the practices pubic knowledge, which could further lead to violators that are being held
accountable. The investigation comes with the criminal investigation, civil law suit as well as
media attention could influence the behaviour of similar firms. The agencies and government
offices that involve in similar misconduct may have previously believed that they can get
away with the negative behaviour; however, the ripple effect of the whistle-blower’s efforts
could introduce some significant changes.
Advantage: Legal Protection

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Whistle Blower Protection Program could protect employees who report violations of
different workplace safety, financial reform, environmental and securities laws. Such
program could protect from retaliation workers who could blow the whistle on their
employer’s behaviour (Guerciet al. 2015). In this context, Andon et al. (2016) also mentioned
that retaliatory action may include dismissal, demotion and denial of major benefits and the
reduction of working hours. The organisations that are found to be in the violation of whistle-
blower protection laws could face direct penalties, suspension of government contracts and
civil laws.
Disadvantages:
Slow or diminished Career Growth
As mentioned by Lavena (2016), the attention that a whistle-blower case usually
brings to employees and the organization might have a shortcoming. The authors of this
paper have also mentioned that media interviews, investigation from the government and
legal testimony could affect the whistle-blowers’ career prospects. On the other side,
Campbell and Göritz, (2014) mentioned that while the outside world could consider whistle-
blower as hero for revealing the corrupted behaviour, the insiders in the industry and hiring
managers might have observed them as a disloyal or discreet for not keeping the
organizational secrets and industrial practice under the wraps. Caillier and Sa (2017)
commented that here the media attention could lead to whistle-blower, which is being
blacklisted in the sector.
Personal Complications
According to Wainberg and Perreault (2015), even though whistle blowers could
understand that their revelations tend to serve the good and they often endure the personal
issues from their own actions. It is also identified that media outlets for the sake of searching

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the story, which could get into whistle-blowers’ personal lives. On the contrary, Gaoet al.
(2015) mentioned that legal complication from the criminal investigations as well as civil
lawsuits against the agency might require them to hire attorneys to defend themselves. They
could receive threats from the retaliation from the earlier supervisors or the colleagues. This
could further go into personal issues and fracture in their relationship.
2.5 Impact of whistle blowing on employees
As put forward by Caillier (2015), for employees who involve in whistleblowing on
an organization, the stress could become overwhelming. Many whistle blowers tend to
remain at their place of employment after coming forward as it is illegal to fire someone for
it. Nonetheless, these people could often experience some particular experience symptom
including insomnia, anxiety and headache. In such context, Cho and Song (2015) mentioned
that there could be some retaliatory act against whistle-blowers which could further cause
heightened stress and discomfort in their jobs. It is also identified that close supervisors and
alienation by co-workers could also be the causeof the stress. A study performed by Park,
Blenkinsopp and Park (2014) have stressed on the termination when it comes to whistle-
blowing. According to the author, some people have been terminated for whistle blowing
even though it is illegal. For instance, if an individual is terminated, that individual will have
to prove whistle blowing violation.
An employee needs to prove that he/she engaged in a safe and protected activity such
as asking for overtime pay, report of sexual harassment or applying the medical leaves and
maintaining a healthy work life balance. In the same context, Liu, Liao and Wei (2015)
mentioned that a whistle blower does not have to exemplify an actual violation of the laws as
long as employee has a reasonable and strong belief and that a violation of the law has taken
place or may take place in the coming future. The author of this research paper has also
mentioned that whistle blower always takes the burden of developing that he/she was

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justified in believing that a report is highly necessary. Hence, Bourne et al. (2015) argued that
it is not protected whistleblowing when the employee has no proof of a violation of the laws
and employee’s suspensions were not reasonable at the time when he/she made a threat to the
report. Conversely, Caillier (2015) mentioned about some positive effects that could result
from whistleblowing. According to the author, it can change policies that benefit employees
and other individuals. It can be well understood with the example, in 1996 Jeffrey Wigand, a
tobacco researcher blew their whistle on the brown &Williamson Tobacco Corporation with
the claim that the agency knew tobacco was addictive (Bourne et al. 2015). The outcome
come out a change in public policy and change in public perceptions of tobacco sector and
this further have a strong impact on the society as a whole.
2.6Empirical findings
Antecedents of whistleblowing
A study performed by Greene and Latting (2004), revealed the findings that many
negative terms including “company traitors”, “informers, rats and moles’ and ‘internal
muckrakers’ have been applied to define workers that have reported illegal or wrongdoing at
work. Yet, there remains a little empirical support for the relationship between personality as
well as whistleblowing. Another study by Mannion and Davies (2015), mentioned that no
personality measures (including compliance with supervisors, submissiveness to
organizational authority as well as self-righteousness) were related to whistleblowing intent.
On the other side, Bashir et al. (2011) performed a study and identified some support for a
link between proactive personality as well as whistle-blowing. The author has also made an
assumption that some range of moral reasoning could influence whether or not an employee
reports to unscrupulous activities.

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Nonetheless, as per the previously mentioned review of whistle blowing article by
Walshe and Shortell (2004), none of the involved studies have discovered a constant
relationship between measures of moral and whistle blowing. Likewise, a latter meta-research
performed by Lachman (2008), is also failed to find a consistent relationship between ethical
judgement and whistleblowing in the involved studies of investigation. Therefore, in spite of
the limited amount of studies performed on the relationship between moral reasoning and
actual whistleblowing, finding of empirical studies suggest that relation between moral
reasoning and the act of whistleblowing is never as clear as it appears when considered from
theoretical perspectives. According to the power theory mentioned by Akabayashi (2002), an
employee’s social and professional power is estimated to create impact on whether an
employee decides to repot wrongdoing or not. The finding of another study carried out by
Jackson et al. (2010), supported this assumption to some extent by demonstrating that
whistle-blowers predominantly seemed to be male professional with high wages. This
assumption only receives a partial support but Bowen, Call and Rajgopal (2010) particularly
mentioned that whistleblowing is predominantly associated with individual characteristic
such as organizational tenure, gender and job level but the author has clarified that job
positioning is particularly associated with reporting unscrupulous activity at work. So, it is
can be mentionedthat most consistent personal characteristics related to actual whistle-
blowing appear to be job position.
2.7Impact of whistleblowing on the management of the organizations
As put forward by Murray (2007), whistleblowing can be defined as the action of
disclosure by the organizational members of illegal as well as illegitimate practice under the
control of their business owners who could be able to influence the action. Even though, it
seems to be harmful to the organizational interest; however, whistle blowing could be
managed to develop organizations. Thus, it can be mentioned that whistle-blowing could play

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a great role in improving accountability, transparency and effective governance to develop
the organization as whole as it is broadly accredited as one of the most significant method as
the part of internal control system in the business to detect and stop corruptions and illegal
activities.
As put forward by Summers and Nowick (2003), it is the right of the managers to
share instead of asking and listening and perceiving whistle blowers as malcontent “wimps”
who observe safety hazards everywhere. Here, Hannigan (2006) arguably mentioned that
when the managers are supposed to listen as the causes has blown up into a proper scandal
and they can consider it as exception and attempt to recognize few rotten apples in the barrel
who are doing and spreading the practice of wrong activity. Thus, there is an appetite
leadership to question their own position, to make themselves vulnerable by acknowledging
that sub-ordinates could know things and could observe systematic things that are could be
critical to development of the overall functioning of the business or the organizations.
According to Gundlach, Douglas, and Martinko (2003), the leaders prefer root cause analysis
and thereby to locate people to blame instead of examining the systemic forces at work that
could cause bad things to happen in a timely manner. To resolve this issue, the authors as the
suggestion have mentioned that to address such as problems, it requires a range of “adaptive
move”.
One of these may take a different approach to the investigation of scandals and
accidents like patient deaths. So, rather than paying attention to root causes as well as people
to blame, one should assume that people act in good faith on thebasis of their evaluation of
the situation at the moment. Hence, Cruise (2002) argued that it is worth accepting what
safety experts have demonstrated on a regular basis- actions and ultimate outcome are over-
determined that what people do and what eventually happens usually have multiple reasons.
Furthermore, Park and Blenkinsopp (2009) performed a study and found that work

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particularly in real situations such as in the hospitals could always experience some amount
of “practical drifting”, which means a deviation from the desired behaviour or what the rules.
There is a need due to the regional circumstances that make it highly essential for people use
their own judgments and sometimes choose to break the rule to perform the job effectively.
The major adaptive move here is to redesign the glasses rather than punishing the workers for
breaking the rule.
2.8Factors leading to whistleblowing in NHS
There could be several factors leading to whistleblowing and the issues can be
encountered in any environment where people live together. As put forward by Pittroff
(2014), whistle blowers claim that healthcare industry is a common place under which a
number of different laws and circumstances are there. As per the investigation of Federal
Bureau of Investigation, frauds in healthcare costs taxpayers over $80 billion on an annual
basis (Kapur 2014). Hence, the cost is estimated to increase with national healthcare spending
which tops $2.7 trillion as well as cost continuing to outplace the inflation (Pittroff 2014).
There has been much in the media spotlight recently throughout United Kingdom healthcare
whistle-blowers. For example, the scandal-hit “Stafford Hospital” has got its fair-share of
spotlight over questionable treatment of patients, which could have been avoided if the
personnel involved in the procedure considered the concern increased from the staff (Henik
2015). In addition to this, a study performed by McGlynn and Richardson (2014), indicates
the fact that in the recent time NHS have observed several incidents regarding the quality of
services such as poor health treatment, ignorance to patients’ request and delay in responses,
which have become one of the major factor for whistleblowing and policy-making.
Another significant example in the study performed by Ko and Hur (2014), reveal the
fact that Harold Shipman, a general practitioner murdered at least 215 of his patients in 24
years before his actions were eventually found in 1998. In addition, in most of the cases are

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in UK spotlight recently, thereby, the organizations form their own norms aligning with the
similar situations (Birtch, Chiang and Van Esch 2016). Eventually, two funeral directors have
made the situations to share and reveal their concerns with the general practitioners. Lately,
the limelight is particularly falling on the deaths of hundreds of patients at Mid Staffordshire
NHS foundation Trust as well as mistreatment in other care facilities (Newdick and Danbury
2015). So, there has to be a handful of whistle-blowers coming up with the concerns about
the patient care. Nonetheless, in return, these whistle blowers do not seem to be receiving the
support they should receive. Employees blow the whistle, on a frequent basis, are publicly
accused of forgery or scamming, fired and some subsequently agree to a modest pay off with
adequate clause to protect themselves from professional and personal damage. In this context,
Kurtessiset al. (2017) commented that there should be a complete focus on protecting United
Kingdom whistle-blowers.
Furthermore, a study performed by Kapur (2014), when the unscrupulous activities like
Mid-Staffordshire take places, which results to patients have the most unpleasant experience
during the care. Therefore, in such context, it is highly important that employees get the
feeling that they can increase concerns or blow the whistle when they observe poor quality or
unsafe care. Thus, all NHS firms are needed by the law to have policies particularly in place
to support employees to increase the concerns but in the recent time hospital scandals as well
as the findings of many surveys have demonstrated that for some particular reasons, many
other employees feel hindered in increasing concerns. On the other side, (Department of
Health, 2014) performed a research on the factors of whistle blowing and they discovered
that in fact the potential whistle blowers are motivated by a particular desire to defend other
individual or the society in an usual basis and the author has also mentioned about some
particular causes leading to whistleblowing.

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 The individual has a clear evidence that organization or someone in the company is
involved in the activity that is seriously wrong or holds a high potential for making a
serious harm
 The alternation in the process to be made is accurate and it is possible to substantiate
the accusations against the individuals
 Reasonable endeavour to avert the wrong through internal consultation and reporting
are made and failed. So, the respective whistle-blowers need to attempt the use of
methods of reporting within the organization barring the decision of going outside
despite the delays internal mechanism may sometimes cause.
Thus, when these conditions are effectively met, blowing the whistle could be considered an
ethical responsibility.
2.9Response and learning of the organizations (NHS) towards whistleblowing
As put forward by Newdick (2014), all health professional need to be able to increase
concerns regarding quality of care without any challenges such as cultural and cultural. When
a professional working in the NHS is aware of the fact that care is threatened, or dangerous
for whatever reason, they have a duty to make these concerns known and those to take the
responsibility to evaluate it when necessary. Such technique is known as raising a concern as
well as the duty of a doctor to do so is stipulated by General Medical Council (GMC).
Organizational setting under NHS have examined the best practices which according to
Glasper (2016), need to be reflected throughout the NHS and social care sector to deal with
the barriers reported and to establish an open environment were complaints and concerns are
observed as an opportunity to enhance patient care. The NHS Constitutions, which applies to
England mentions about three core expectations related to whistle blowing.
 An expectation that employees should raise concerns at the most earliest opportunity

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 A pledge that NHS firms should support employees by ensuring their concerns are
proper investigated as well as that there should be someone outside of their team for
speaking
 Transparency around the existing legal right for employees to increase concerns
regarding safety, malpractice and other unethical and illegal activity
As put forward by Pope (2017), such expectations should be supported throughout United
Kingdom through adequate time and resources.
 A particular focus on patient safety and continuous enhancement to change
perceptions around increasing concerns and whistle blowing as well as support and
encourage people to do the same (Henik 2015)
 A proper action by NHS leaders as well as supervisors to develop an open and safe
environment in which employees could discuss and increase concerns and the patient
care is processed and the requirement to whistle blow is reduced (Kapur 2014)
 The requirement to increase concern and whistle blow as well as to protect the right of
others who do the same, need to be reflected in NHS contacts
 The employees of NHS and social care setting need to know their rights,
responsibilities and techniques with respect to raising concerns and whistle blowing,
which means there should be a transparent structure to be increased and to make sure
that the high priority is provided to check a proper response
 Individuals who increase a concern or blow the whistle are not supposed to fear
recrimination and should have supported throughout the process and thereafter make
sure that they do not become isolated. There need to be transparency with respect to
how concerns and whistle blowing incidents have been managed.

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2.10 Gaps in the literature
The existing studies have provided multiple facts about whistle blowing, its process,
impact and consequences. However, the findings of the studies are quite generic which means
that studies did not provide or mention about any real-world facts and findings related to
whistle blowing in an organizational context. Moreover, the existing studies did not mention
or consider the facts of organizational justice and organizational climate and culture. A study
performed by Henik (2015) has mentioned the fact that perceived support from top level of
management and the supervisors anticipates helps in understanding when and how the whistle
is to be blown. However, there is contradiction that on the basis of social exchange theory,
which tells that greater level of supervisor support leads to norms of reciprocity which
improves trust in the medium and the supports of supervisors can lead to unethical practices
(Alvesson and Sköldberg 2017). However, this is often related to internal organizational
environment such as culture and climate but the studies did not pay required attention to this
context. On the other side, in health care sector, organizational policies and norms are
inevitable due to large variety of services; so, the chances of violating rules and wrongful
activities are certain to happen but the studies only have theoretical views about such context.
Eventually, it can be mentioned that inclusion of an experimental analysis would have
unveiled the contemporary issues or the facts leading to whistle blowing (Henik 2015).

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CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
This chapter provides particularly discusses the research methods, approaches and
designs intensively highlighting particularly those used in the study with the justification of
choices through explaining the advantage and disadvantages of each approach and design
considering real-world applicability to the study. According to Alvesson and Sköldberg
(2017), methodology as the shape which is associated with a specific set of paradigm
assumptions which is applied to perform the research. The methodology used in the study is
the most appropriate to accomplish objectives of the study and it can replicate the
methodology used in the study of the similar type.
3.2 Research philosophy
Research Philosophy is mainly associated with the source, nature and development of
knowledge. In a simple sense, research philosophy remains as the belief about the ways in
which data regarding a phenomenon need to be collected and used. In this context, Edson,
Henning and Sankaran (2016) commented that resolving this research philosophy in the
research work requires awareness and formulation your belief and assumptions. There are
three different types of research philosophy such as positivism, interpretivism and
pragmatism. According to Flick (2015), who are positivists or believe in positivism views the
world as real, independent, where organizations remains as discrete entities. Positivism
research philosophy mainly drives knowledge development through the generation as well as
testing of hypotheses, which further leads to creation of validated patterns of evidences. On
the other side, interpretivism views the world as different from the natural world and socially
constructed in which the business setting or the organizations remain as the product of
dialogue. As put forward by Panneerselvam (2014), promotes a philosophy of meaning and

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considers the account of reality as socially negotiated. However, in the present study,
positivism research philosophy has been used.
Justifying the selection of research philosophy
Positivism research philosophy has been selected in the present study because it
provides primacy to numbers and statistical modelling to generate quantifiable as well as
generalizable conclusions, which could form the ground for scientific regulations. In addition,
the data on whistle blowing and organizational structure of NHS collected through secondary
collection methods have been judged against the criteria of validity, reliability and
generalizability. On the other side, interpretivism research philosophy has not been used to
the study because under interpretivism research philosophy research findings are judged
against the criteria of meaning as well as casual adequacy (Alvesson and Sköldberg 2017).
3.3 Research Approach
Research approaches are usually divided into three different types –namely deductive
research approach, inductive research approach and abductive research approach. According
to Creswell and Clark (2017), the application and the relevance of hypotheses to the research
is the major distinguishing fact between the deductive and inductive approaches. According
to Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault (2015), deductive research approach verifies the validity of
assumptions while inductive approach contributes to the emergence of new theories as well
as generalizations. Conversely, abductive research begins with “surprising facts” and the
technique of the research is devoted in the explanation. However, in the present study
inductive research approach has been used.
Justifying the selection of inductive research approach
The present research uses inductive research approach because inductive research approach
does not involve the establishment of hypothesis while deductive research approach has been

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rejected, as deductive research requires the formulation of a set of hypotheses for the
dissertation that should be confirmed or rejected. This means the research questions such as
the factors leading to whistle blowing in NHS has been achieved while applying the process
to the research (Alvesson and Sköldberg 2017). In addition to these two, abductive research
approach has been rejected because the research technique is particularly devoted to the
explanation of incomplete observation which may appear to be a challenge in deriving the
insight about whistle blowing in the organization.
3.4 Research Design
According to Vaioleti (2016), research design remains as the choice between
qualitative and quantitative research method; while mentioned Panneerselvam (2014)
mentioned that research design is referred to the choice of particular method of data
collection and analysis. Research design is divided into two different groups such as
exploratory and conclusive. According to Ledford and Gast (2018), exploratory research
mainly focuses on exploring the specific elements of the study area and this research design
does not aim to provide final and conclusive responses to the research questions. On the other
side, conclusive research design known as descriptive research design is usually applied to
findings that are particularly relevant and leading to decision-making. Conversely, deductive
research approach is mainly concerned with development of hypotheses on the basis of
existing theory. The current study uses conclusive research design because this sort of
research objectives and data requirements is usually clearly defined.
3.5 Data Collection method
As put forward by Flick (2015) data collection is the technique of gathering
information from all useful sources to find responses to the research issue and evaluate the
outcome. Data collection techniques can be divided into two different categories namely

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secondary data collection and primary data collection technique. However, only secondary
data has been used in the present study (Bourne et al. 2015).
Secondary Data collection technique
As mentioned by Alvesson and Sköldberg (2017), secondary data is a type of data that
has already been issued in books, newspaper, journals and online portal. There is a plenty of
sources of data available in such sources in terms of the research area in business studies,
irrespective of the nature of the study. In the present study, the secondary data has been
collected from books, peer-reviewed journals, NHS historical records, healthcare journals and
online reading sources. However, there is a criteria of selecting the secondary data, which is
supposed to be used with in the study, which plays a great role in terms of the level of
research validity and reliability (Bourne et al. 2015). The secondary data has also been
collected to keep relation with the literature found. Here, the secondary data has particularly
been collected to involve the relevant literature and investigate the organizational structure of
National Health Setting as well as the history of whistle blowing to conceptualize the study.
3.6 Data Analysis
As the study includes a broad and contemporary context, an in-depth analysis is
required to achieve the aim and purpose. Subsequently, the interpreted data has been analysed
with the findings discovered in the literature review (Alvesson and Sköldberg 2017). Each
fact has been aligned with prior evidence gathered in the literature. As the study includes
qualitative analysis, data has been analysed by applying a narrative analysis methods in
which the reformulation of stories presented by the respondents have been considered. The
method includes different experience and case of each respondents. Likewise, the case and
experiences have been linked to the literature to find the relation of any particular occurrence
related to whistle blowing.

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3.7 Ethical Consideration
Ethical grounds are the most the significant consideration in the research when it
includes a primary analysis. The study only includes a secondary analysis and the data has
been collected from a wide open sources. Thus, to avoid the ethical issues in the study, the
researcher makes sure that data collected from the NHS departments have only been used for
the academic purpose. The data has not been published in any other public medium. In order
to keep the data secure and confidential, the principles and guidelines of Data Protection
Act 1998 have been followed. Moreover, the anonymity of the individuals and organizations
taking part in the study have been ensured properly (Alvesson and Sköldberg 2017).
3.8 Research Limitation
Even though, the study is performed on broader context, there is a lack of previous
studies in the area. The previous studies lack the empirical findings and the number of studies
used in the review is also less. An intensive review of literature would have helped to learn
several facts of whistle blowing, which would have provided a vivid idea of the practice of
whistle blowing in the organizations. Although, many studies have been performed on the
whistle blowing but the current study required a contemporary as well as evolving research
problems because a health care sector is dynamic with respect to services and internal
operation and incident of whistle blowing is inevitable. So, contemporary facts would provide
a more clear idea about whistle blowing.

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CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS
4.1 Introduction
This chapter of the study presents the secondary data that have been collected by
books, journal articles and newsletter of few organizations under the National Healthcare
Setting. The qualitative data has been collected from the interview with the senior
organizational members of NHS provided in the journal articles. A thematic data analysis
process has been applied by creating 8 different themes based on whistleblowing and its
impact on the employees of the organisations under NHS, UK.
4.2 Secondary Analysis
Theme 1: “whistleblowing is laudable and the role of general medical council”
Andon et al. (2016) commented that there is a state of possibility that the
development of an appropriate organizational culture, where organizational members’ or the
service users voices are heard and the practice of whistle blowing lead to improved patient
safety remains as “Laudable if Elusive goal”.
There is a state of doubt that whistle blowing remains a laudable attempt, even though
interestingly, there is a scarcity of areas in the existing papers where the scholars have
mentioned that whistle blowing leads to safety of patients. Thus, there remains indirect
evidences only that supports the argument that a white blowing culture could be laudable,
consisting most of the retrospective analysis of several cases where the safety fails, as whistle
blowing has been ignored. It has been identified that such retrospective analysis could
normalize whistleblowing work to be conducted to make sure and demonstrate that whistle
blowing creates safety prospectively instead of belatedly learning from the whistle-blower
once the harm is taken place. On the other side, the data gathered from the National

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Healthcare Service organizations, indicates the role of the general medical council (Alvesson
and Sköldberg 2017).
This means in NHS, professional bodies could strengthen their members’ natural
reluctance to blow whistle by manufacturing disciplinary codes which could introduce the
additional challenges. According to Bourne et al. (2015), a doctor of the professional skills,
knowledge and qualification can identify such reluctance in the “Blue Book” that talks about
the depreciation. The author has mentioned that there have been many cases, which
prosecuted that the doctors who escalated the legitimate concerns and there are rules under
NHS’ regulatory and professional bodies. The rules made by the regulatory bodies confirm
the fact that the criticism of colleagues could be somehow unacceptable. Nonetheless, in this
context, Campbell and Göritz (2014) mentioned that employees in the primary care
organizations might feel unable or they might find it difficult to raise their voice without
being traced and this happens due to their size as they could be much smaller than a Hospital
Trust. According to this author, the management of the organizations could develop an
internal relationship as well as a real challenge to employment could appear to be a
significant issue and this is probably the reason of not escalating the issue.
Theme 2: “Discrepancy and whistleblowing”
According to the data provided in the newsletter of the Queslett Medical Centre, one
of the service users has mentioned that he reported clinical concerns as well as raised the
issue of bullying and no proper action was taken. “They were investigated but did not
consider me as the complainer. A report was made and nothing actually happened”. The user
has also mentioned that “I still have serious doubts regarding the safety of blood transfusion
service at my end” (Queslettmedicalcentre.nhs.uk.2018). Hence, the whistle-blowing policies
of Queslett Medical Centre say it helps to protect the right of its patients by delivering a

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means for its employees when identifying any doubtful malpractice, and any sort of failure at
the malfunction that could put the patients in risk. Such issues remains in some organisations
under NHS Lui (2014) performed anexperimental study through interview and survey and
found that almost 42% of the respondents agree such concern continues today while 38% of
the respondents have mentioned that they do not think such concerns can exist till date while
20% of the respondents have no clue about such issue. However, in the literature review,
Pittroff (2014) mentioned that practice of whistle blowing is not old cliché; this means with
the expansion of business or the organization, internal work practices also differ. So, when
the organization expands in terms of capacity, chance of unscrupulous activities also increase
because there are different levels of work practice departments and each department is having
increasing number of employees. It is possible that some employees or departments may not
comply with the policies and they take advantages of the systems.
In addition to this, poor quality of service in the healthcare setting, deliberate mistake
in treating the patient are also considered as unethical activities; thereby, Prassl (2014)
mentioned that major challenge that a large organization find is arrangements of training and
development programs and supervisions. According to this author it could be difficult for a
large business to supervise the operation of each department as reporting and supervision
takes plenty of time. The healthcare organization “Stafford Hospital” as mentioned in the
literature became the victim of the scandal as the quality of service at the lower level was not
monitored properly. It is identified that the means for the above procedure is presented
through the “The PublicDisclosure Act 1998 and it is usually referred to the whistleblowing
(Bashir et al.2011). According to the organizational policy a failure or malfunction which is
considered to presently occurring has occurred earlier and likely to take place in the future
will not be endured and the events may include “any criminal offence, any sort of breach of

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legal obligation, a miscarriage of justice and endangering the health and safety of any patient
or worker”.
Theme 3: “Whistle blowing and patient safety”
A study performed by Bowen, Call and Rajgopal (2010) mentioned that when an
organization tends to follow a tall organizational structure, they usually do not pay much
attention to the incidents that occur in the lower or middle level. In the case of National
Healthcare Setting, issue of unethical or unscrupulous activities go often unnoticed. There are
different departments and organization under the settling, thus, for an individual it is difficult
to convey the concern to respective authority. Moreover, if any of the departments violate the
rules, it takes a lot of time to identify the issues. It is identified that the “Public Interest
Disclosure Act of 1998” passed to keep the safety of whistle-blowers against the case of
Bristol Paediatric surgery scandal have not been effective as considered (Ashton 2015). In
addition to this, in 2003, according to the European Commission whistle-blowers can play a
great role in the debate against corruption urging the Member State to deliver protection for
them but adequate advocacy has not been followed. On the other side, the recent investigation
of the CNEP Trials in “Stoke on Trent” have increased the issue of vexatious whistle blowing
which may engage parents and external media. A study performed by Bourne et al. (2015)
have mentioned the fact that whistle blowing in National Healthcare Service always remains
as traumatic undertaking and it is usually not to be recommended. There is a limited amount
of evidence ethically sound disclosure, which is morally and legally justified and developed
to enhance outcomes for the safety of patients providing the requisite care.
As National Healthcare Service is a large setting, organizational policies and norms
are also strict enough to monitor such issues. If the complaint is filled to the right authority,
the solution can be derived. However, it is difficult for the employees in the general level to

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learn about such actions as there are different layers of management and the personnel
working in the top level of management usually share the issue with the employees. Thus, it
is certain that employees will not know about whether actions are taken to address the issue
(Kapur 2014). Moreover, in the literature review, it was studied that when an individual blow
the whistle for a particular activity, the authority is required to perform a detailed
investigation and involve authorized individuals to examine the issue. So, it is a time-
consuming process and the individuals tend to ignore due to their loss of time and effort.
Theme 4:“Existing laws protecting welfare of employees and creating awareness for
whistle-blowing initiatives”
An experimental study performed by Pittroff (2014) has provided the fact that
whistle-blowers protection mechanism must include a significant channel based on which
protected disclosure can be arranged in place. Such mechanism may include disclosure
occurred from internal and external environment of the organization to a designated
authority. For example, the regulation 3 made by NHS is supposed to prevent an organization
under NHS from discriminating against an applicant as it appears to the NHS employer the
applicant made a protected disclosure. So, to create effect that the draft states that
“Prohibition of discrimination because of protected disclosure. An employer under NHS
should not discriminate against an application as it appears applicant made a protected
disclosure”(Prassl 2014). Thus, for this purpose “protected disclosure” is described by
Section 43A of the Employment Right Act 1996, which indicates by relating the potential
complaint of discriminations to whether it “appears” to the NHS organization than an
applicant made a protected disclosure, issues could be raised under the perspective NHS
organizations as to the veracity or otherwise of the protected disclosure.

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In addition, NHS Greenwich Clinical Commissioning Group tends to make sure that
employees should feel empowered as well as supported to increase concerns effectively as
well as promote culture of openness and transparency at all ranges. In addition, findings of a
public inquiry into Mid-Staffordshire NHS foundation Trust demonstrate the effect of
catastrophe when concerns are not escalated or treated effectively (Kapur 2014). In response
to the suggestion of the public inquiry into Mid-Staffordshire NHS Foundation, NHS
Greenwich Commissioning Group paid attention two significant areas: ensuring that all
providers of NHS care services are adequately delivering safety standards and focus on
listening to patients and staff working inclusively as the organizational member (Pyper 2014).
Theme 5:“Amendments of laws leading the whistle-blowing policies”
According to Public inquiry report on the organizational bodies of NHS, the Secretary
of State for Health disclosed a series of measures to develop and deliver protective measures
to existing safeguards for whistle blowers in the “Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998”.
The amended laws of NHS asks to insert an expectation that employees of National Health
Staff could raise the voice about safety, malpractice doing at work which could affect
patients, the public and other employees or the organizational bodies as the whole as early
as possible (Pyper 2014). This law particularly create an awareness that employees should
not back off when a wrongful activities take place in the workplace. In addition to this, the
amendment also talks about an insertion to support all employees in raising concerns
regarding safety, malpractice or any unscrupulous activity in the workplace by responding to
and where required investigating the concern raised”. A study mentioned in the literature
review by Pope (2017) reveals this similar fact that laws and regulations remain as the
procedural action but the most significant thing that employees should consider is, their own
action at the initial stage.

42DISSERTATION
Theme 6: “Challenges to employees reaching the decision fraud, waste, abuse and other
wrong doings”
The employees at National Healthcare Setting, usually do not prefer to raise the voice
or blow the whistle because they are different layers of management and NHS is a large
setting; thereby, the individuals find it difficult to decide which authority they need to reach
to raise the issue. On the other side, Francis (2015) mentioned that by considering the actions
of investigation and internal threat from other authorities, employees usually do not prefer to
raise the issue. Employees have the fear of losing their jobs. Moreover, employees find it
difficult to raise the concerns because when wrongdoings or unethical activities take place in
the workplace, it is certain investigation may include media exposure which is the question of
self-image, which means individuals have the concern of being a victim in the limelight. One
of the social workers of Queslett Medical Centre has mentioned that employees, due to fear
of losing jobs and difficulty of preparing for another job, do not want their employers to be
investigated by regulatory department and publicized by the news media (Cho and Song
2015) . An existing study performed by Lui (2014) mentioned that with a growing number of
participants geared up to start looking for another job if their employers were to become
involved in a major scandal. A manager working at the operational department of Queslett
Medical Centre mentioned the fact that ethical standards are not enhancing as employees
tend to receive mixed messages from management and the senior managers or the managers
at the higher level are not able to consistently encourage as well as enforce complaint conduct
(Queslettmedicalcentre.nhs.uk.2018). The author of this article has also highlighted the fact
managerial practices also remain as the barrier to employees when reporting about the
wrongdoings. For example, although the employees observe their employees saying no to
bribes, the same managers might avoid the unethical behaviour of employees if their actions
contributed to achieve the corporate objectives.

43DISSERTATION
Theme 7: “Government Initiatives to lessen the impact of the challenges related to
whistle blowing”
NHS and the government together needs to amend the policies of maintaining ethical
behaviour in the workplace (Ciasullo, Cosimato and Palumbo 2017). It is certain that in a
large organizational setting, the managers, supervisors and other parties tend to take
advantage of the system. However, the regulatory bodies of the setting need to implement a
transparent supervisions and inspection policies. For example, currently, there is a limited
number of authorized members in the Board of NHS. Thus, as UK government should assign
more members in the board or they need to change flat board structure by making a
horizontal one. This means if one board executive is currently supervising 100 managers, it
should be broken down to 25 managers under one board executive. This might help to
increase the frequency of supervision and inspection (Francis 2015). On the other side, senior
manager of the senior manager of NHS has mentioned that organization needs to research,
develop and document and these policies should be articulated in the employee handbook;
thereby, the protection need to be place in for those who raise the voice against the unethical
activities (Guerciet al. 2015). So, the authors have highlighted the fact that if the frequency of
supervision and inspection increases and implementation of the policies are ensured on a
regular basis, the organizational members at the general level gather the confidence to raise
issue to concerned departments.
Theme 8: “Role of regulatory framework to encourage employees to disclose
wrongdoings”
According to the executives of National Health Care Setting converting whistle-
blower protection into legislations validates and structures the techniques under which the
whistle-blowers could reveal the wrongdoings all sort of organizational setting (Jacksonet

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al.2010). This statement is quite similar to the fact found in a study performed by Jones
(2016), in which the author has mentioned that legislations should be prepared in a way that it
protects the whistle blowers against the retaliation. So, if the legislations are implemented
properly, it is certain that protection of whistle blowers could become a significant tool to
promote and support the anti-corruption initiatives. Another respondent of the above
mentioned study has mentioned that “Protection of whistle blowers should be provided for
particular provisions in variety of regulations like the criminal code, labour regulations and
laws on prevention of bribery and negligence of care”. However, such regulations at NHS
have already been formed, as one consultation, protecting whistle-blowers made the
guidelines that “employees should be given the right to complain to an employment tribunal
if they are discriminated against, as it appears they have previously blown the whistle”
(Aol.co.uk 2018).
4.3 Discussion
There is a large categories of illegal activities occur in the workplace. It is quite
certain that when an organisation has multiple departments, scope for unethical or
unscrupulous activities is also high. In the literature it was found that when an organization
does not have strict HR policies related behaviour and ethics, the chances of wrongdoing
related to unethical or illegal activities remain high (Cho and Song 2015). However, as
mentioned earlier, when an individual is working for many years in an organizational setting
can hold the maximum authority and members under such individual are supposed to follow
the commands. On the other side, people who are working as the general departments have
the less to observe such unethical activities; thereby, the percentage of individuals have not
witnessed the above mentioned activities is high. The findings clearly indicates that employee
tenure in healthcare setting is long (Lavena 2016). Therefore, when an individual is working
with the organization for a long time, it is certain that the individual knows about the internal

45DISSERTATION
policies and procedures and their way out. On the contrary, it is worth mentioning that when
an individual is with the setting for a long time is supposed to gain much knowledge about
organisational norms and policies. Consequently, that person complies with the policies can
help others to do the same. Hence, the risk of unethical or illegal activities in the workplace
is less. However, a study by Mannion and Davies (2015) in the literature review, mentions
the fact of organizational climate, where the senior member or the supervisor holds maximum
authority and he/she can restrain the individual from raising the issue for their own interest.
Furthermore, when illegal or unethical activities take place in an organization’s environment,
especially in a healthcare setting, employees at each department are certain to be involved in
the case. So, the occurrence of unethical activities can take place inside or outside the
business. This particular fact is quite related to the fact found in the literature. Lavena (2016)
mentioned the fact that whistle blowing could often take place due to culture and climate of
the organization. Thus, if an organisation’s structure is broad in terms of departments, the
scope for unethical practices are also extending.

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CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
5.0 Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be mentioned that healthcare workers throughout their careers
could observe several incidents related to unscrupulous or unethical activities. The review of
literature and the data findings indicate the fact that some occurrence could result in serious
harms occurring to others while sometime such threats could result in minimal harm- where
harm is avoided at the last minute. The findings indicate the fact that in spite of fact that
organizations encouraging staffs to “speak up” regarding such threats, the healthcare system
internationally struggle to involve employees to do the same. In some particular cases, where
the employees raise the concerns, those with the authority to listen and respond ignore them
often (Lavena 2016). However, in a general sense, it can be mentioned that the organizations
under NHS should learn how to create and the conditions where employees tend to raise
concerns as well as respond to concerns is essential in generating a continuous and responsive
learning culture which cherishes keeping patients as well as employee safe.
Background in the introductory section talks about tortured history in National Health
even though it has been identified by authoritative reviews as making an essential
contribution to safety of the parties involved in the organization. Several studies in the
literature review have mentioned an integrated definition that whistleblower is a person who
raise the voice against the wrongdoings (Mannion and Davies 2015). The review of literature
also indicate the fact that in National Healthcare Setting, the regulatory bodies could
reinforce their members’ natural reluctance to whistle blower by generating disciplinary
codes which provides additional codes. The major purpose of the report was to understand
the degree of impact of whistle blowing in organisation learning. The objective was to
determine the impact of whistle blowing on organizational members. In the literature, it was

47DISSERTATION
found that there is possibility that employees during their work period may come across
several unethical or unscrupulous activities but due to the ignorance of senior managers or the
departments at the higher level, the employees at the general refrain from raising the issue to
the concerned authority. The secondary data has been gathered for the analysis which leading
to the fact that NHS in the recent time have made several amendments in the existing laws.
Data gathered from the interview analysis performed by the scholars tells the fact UK
government should assign more members in the board or they need to change flat board
structure by making a horizontal one. This is done to increase the frequency of inspection
with purpose of preventing unscrupulous activities. Although, there has been several laws and
governments initiative, preventing unethical or any sort of wrongdoing in the workplace
could be difficult, unless there is a frequent inspection on the context.
5.2 Recommendation
The findings imply that National Healthcare Service in United Kingdom, due to lack
of initiatives of employees towards whistle-blowing, has made several amendments in the
existing laws to protect the employees for whistle blowing. Nonetheless, due to lack of
inspection and poor knowledge of employee regarding the initiatives, any sort of wrongdoing
activities do not come in the limelight. The following suggestions have been provided to lead
or guide employees towards such initiatives (Mannion and Davies 2015).
Conduct training: The organizations under National Healthcare Service should teach
managers and employees about how to treat or deal with the concerns without the fear of
retaliation. This means that organizational bodies under NHS, to create awareness, need to
provide employees with appropriate training regarding how to raise the concerns about the
wrongdoings, when and whom to report the issue (Lavena 2016). There should be one or two
specific authorized bodies in the organization who will supervise such as across the
organization. When the employees know the specific bodies where they report issue, they do

48DISSERTATION
not have to invest unnecessary time in finding which authority they will report to. In addition,
the organization also needs to make their employees understand developed “hotlines are safe
to raise concerns”.
Provide financial incentives: It was found in the literature and findings that
employees have the barrier to raise the concerns as due to their self-belief and fear of losing
their job position or causing self-harm. In response to this issue, the organizations need to
develop a reward system where employees will get incentives for valid whistle-blowing.
This reward system not only lessen the fear of organizational members of retaliation, it might
give them a financial inducement to develop (Lavena 2016).
Get endorsement from top management: The top level management starting with
CEO, need to demonstrate or convey a strong commitment for encouraging whistle blowing.
Such message of commitment should be communicated by the line managers at all levels,
who are trained persistently in generating an open-door policy about employee’s concerns
regarding the wrongdoings in the organizations.

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Reflective Statement
From completion of the paper I have attained detailed understanding on IPD literature
focussed on 'business savvy' and value added HR practice. The research also facilitated me in
analysing the professional behaviours identified on the CIPD profession map. From analysing
the strategic HRM and learning styles literature I have attained detailed knowledge on value
added HR practice such as whistle blowing. In maintaining a better HRM practice whistle
blowing HRM approach considers expectation of assumption as well as staff loyalty that
NHS offers exceptional heath service globally. I have also attained an increased
understanding regarding necessity to understand knowledge regarding employee initiatives
that can decrease their wrong-doing activities.
Key learning that is gathered from the paper is whistle-blowing, its process of
application, laws protecting the whistle blowers and many other aspects. When working on
the project I came across several research techniques that I was not aware of initially.
However, when working on the project I had to face many challenges in terms of objectives
formulation, goals setting, research techniques selection, data presentation and many other
complex aspects. However, these appeared to be as challenges but overcoming these
challenges came out as a great learning lesion for me. In the following I have presented the
major challenges and how I dealt with them in coherent manner.
Strategic HR perspective shaped by activity of whistle blowing and strategic HR
perspective is the major areas I covered in the research. Initially, I did not have any idea
about the topic; particularly, I did not have any idea that despite organizational and HR
policies, unethical or wrongdoings can take place in the workplace. I did not have any idea
about how an employee can blow whistle or what consequences remain at the end. However,
after reviewing a dozen of papers on whistle-blowing in organizational learning, there are

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several parties who can be affected by the practices of whistle blowing but employees,
especially, the employees who are working at the general level observe a large impact on
them. The continuous reading and review of existing papers help me to design the topic for
research project. As I found that employees at the general level often become the victims of
whistle-blowing, I wanted to examine the impact of whistle-blowing; thereby, I have made
the topic in that way. Nonetheless, designing the topic is not the only challenge I faced, I had
to find out what existing papers have found regarding the impact of whistle blowing on
employees. I studied 8 different papers and all of them raised mentioned about a similar
aspect –wrongdoings or any other unscrupulous activities can take place due to both internal
and external forces. This means that external stakeholders hold a great role in making
employees blow the whistle or restrain them from doing it. Thus, I needed to know the factors
that lead to whistle blowing. So, I set my objectives of research in including this particular
aspect. Likewise, I have also developed some other objectives that are centred on whistle
blowing and its impact on the each stakeholders group such as employees.
I have managed my own time and co-ordinates this individual research project
through which I have learnt about my core competencies from such activity. I categorized my
reach time schedule and stipulated the time for each activity. So, the collation of raw data did
not prove to be so challenging, which I thought initially but converting and presenting them
in a convenient and meaningful way appears to be challenging. As I knew the use of Excel,
here I did not have to spend much time in converting the data. Eventually, I must mention
that the completion of the project increased my knowledge, which I can further use in my
next project or if I am involved in a project asked by any agency, I can do it effectively.
Another significant challenge I found is selection of proper journal articles that gives
me a proper idea about the areas that I need to study on to lead my research and make
alignment among the aspects I found. As whistle-blowing is a controversial aspect of

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organization, none of the papers have mentioned a real incident or scenario where such
wrongdoing or unethical activities have taken place. The existing papers have only discussed
and presented the theoretical perspectives. Some papers have provided processes, theories
and techniques of blowing the whistle. However, I was looking for real-world facts, where I
will have the ideas about how the organizations have dealt with the scenarios. I studied few
case studies and newspapers articles, where I found one incident meeting my criteria of
presenting in the literature. Nonetheless, major gap I found that most of the studies are much
of generic and the solutions given to treat whistle blowing are not relevant to the present
context. So, I treated the gap as the scope of expanding the research on the chosen context.
I have also revealed certain imitations within the methodological approach while
carrying out this research. Data collection and presentation were actually the real challenge
for me as I did not have any idea how I would collect data from such large organizational
setting where more than 100 agencies are working. I was in the dilemma that whether I would
get the access to find the required data relating to wrongdoing or unscrupulous activities
occurred in National Healthcare Service. On the other side, I wanted to make my project
more realistic and relevant to the present context. So, I decided to collect primary data from
the organizational members who are presently working in the organization under NHS in UK.
Therefore, taking the consent from the university, I decided to perform a survey and
interview among the employees of the organizations.
Nonetheless, I did not have many ideas about the techniques of performing survey and
interview. To overcome this challenge, I found out some existing papers performed on
different issues, where such survey and interview have been performed by the authors.
Obtaining knowledge from the papers and taking the ideas of my supervisors, I designed the
questionnaire both close-ended and open ended. Nevertheless, taking or collecting feedbacks
from the individuals was time consuming and a cumbersome method. Therefore, I used the

60DISSERTATION
Google Survey Form, where I wrote all the questions and mailed them to respective
respondents for the survey. I set the questions in a manner that would not take much time to
respond and would not hurt the sentiment of the respondents. Notwithstanding, performing
the interview with the respondents was challenging because implementation of interview
process takes a lot of time.