Retaliation against whistleblowers

In the previous chapter on action research, retaliation against whistleblowers was an important issue that caused the researcher’s actions to occur. In this chapter, we further explore the issue of retaliation against whistleblowers, since whistleblowers are so important to the detection of signals regarding white-collar misconduct and crime. Continuing retaliations will prevent future whistleblowing. Therefore, it is important to understand the forms of retaliation in order to prevent them from happening. Norwegian law regulates and prohibits retaliation against whistleblowers, but no conviction has yet occurred where a court has passed a prison sentence because of such crimes. Rather, victims of retaliation have to sue their employer for compensation if they suffer retaliation in the form of job loss or other consequences. This chapter starts by briefly reviewing the literature on retaliations against whistleblowers. Next, we distinguish between retaliations as concrete, individualized actions and retaliation as a coherent process over time. The process may start with ignorance, move into rejection and end with sanctions. The chapter continues by presenting the case of two whistleblowers in a Norwegian municipality who have experienced retaliations. Then we discuss incident-based and process-based retaliation actions by comparing their classifications in groups and stages.