26: Whistleblowing with Professor Kate Kenny

Professor Kate Kenny is a leading expert in the field of
Whistleblowing.  In this podcast Kate draws on psychosocial
approaches to take a fresh look at Whistleblowing.  
Whistle-blowers are consistently treated by the media and public
as traitors or hero’s. Take Edward Snowden, for some he is a
courageous hero who sacrificed his career and put himself in
danger for ‘truth-telling’, for others he is a traitor for giving
away secrets to enemies of the state.  Kate builds a broader
case that situates whistle-blowers in their organisational and
social context. In this fascinating conversation Kate discusses
how whistleblowing is an organisational phenomenon and how group
and social dynamics influence how whistle-blowers act, and how
they are responded to.  Many organisations respond
positively to whistle-blowers yet some continue to enact
'whistleblower retaliation'.   Kate also discusses the
importance of organisations more generally, and how they impact
on our psychic and emotional lives, individually and
collectively.  


 


Bio Kate Kenny is Professor of Business and
Society at NUI Galway.  She has held research fellowships at
the Edmond J. Safra Lab at Harvard University and Cambridge's
Judge Business School.  Her research focuses on organization
studies, specifically political and psychosocial approaches. She
has researched whistleblowing in organisations since 2010. Along
with numerous articles in peer review journals on this topic, she
has published two books on whistleblowing: Whistleblowing: Toward
a new theory (Harvard University Press, 2019) and The
Whistleblowing Guide (Wiley Business, 2019, with Wim
Vandekerckhove and Marianna Fotaki). She has written and
contributed to articles in the Financial Times, the Irish Times,
the Guardian among others.  Her work has been cited in the
UK House of Commons, Ireland’s parliament and in policy documents
at EU level.  Kate’s recent book ‘Whistleblowing: Toward a
New Theory’ (Harvard University Press, 2019)  adopts a
psychosocial framing to whistleblowing. Her book ‘The
Whistleblowing Guide’ (Wiley, 2019) with Professors Wim
Vandekerckhove and Professor Marianna Fotaki is aimed at
practicing managers, coaches and others working in this space.
The Psychosocial and Organization Studies (Palgrave, 2014 with
Professor Marianna Fotaki) is an edited collection of
contributions from experts in this field. Watch an interview with
Kate and Chris Smalls, Amazon whistleblower mentioned in the
discussion.  Short pieces on Covid-19, healthcare and
whistleblowing (as mentioned), featured in the The Conversation
and RTE Brainstorm  Reports, videos and research from
Professor Kenny are all on www.whistleblowingimpact.org