A peek into the whistleblower phenomenon

In recent times, the Whistleblower phenomenon has entered center-stage of social media attention, legal gaze and corporate concerns. This brief article attempts to explore a likely ‘mobilising trigger’ for this phenomenon, some unintended implications, and also examine it as an ‘interplayed identity’ using the lens of the Transformative Alignment Map (TAM).

Dented idealism and the pull to accountability

Frances Haugen, the now-well-known Facebook Whistleblower spent hours detailing to US lawmakers how the social network harms young people and incites violence. Making the choice to blow the whistle may not have been an easy choice for Frances. What may have been behind her mind, and indeed this growing phenomenon that illuminates dark nooks, shuts escape hatches and demands public attention?

There are some people who dream of a good world, of fairness and justice, of democratised power, and of people and systems displaying conscientiousness. Some of such people also believe that for their ideals to be realised, there are two types of accountability that need to be considered.

1. The system’s accountability to the context
2. Their own personal accountability to their ideals

First — the system they are part of needs to be accountable to its context. Especially so, when the system claims to ameliorate the context (and makes billions of dollars in revenue, quite aided by the claim). This is perhaps what Frances was looking for, and in a sense of deep disappointment when she found quite the opposite, decided to blow the whistle

Second — Their own accountability to their ideals: The question they ask themselves is — If I believe in something and if I do not stand up for it, who will?

Putting the two together, we can see their pull to call out and correct what they perceive as a serious wrong against the context (mostly public interest, in whistleblowers’ cases)

For many people like Frances, joining a company is more than taking a job to earn money. Companies are often seen by such people as vehicles for expressing and furthering their own values, and-or as spaces to learn about some values. The company becomes an entity to look up to, to feel proud of and position as a beacon for others. All the more so if the companies publicly espouse values they purport to stand by, and-or are companies that are globally recognized, visible and influential on people’s minds (like Facebook or Google, of course).

But then, every investment in idealism comes packaged with a possibility of disappointment, of rude awakening. “I believe in the potential of Facebook,” said Frances during her testimony before Congress. “We can have social media we enjoy, that connects us, without tearing apart our democracy, putting our children in danger, and sowing ethnic violence around the world. We can do better.” Her realization that her organization was likely causing harm to democracy and endangering people and the world was the disappointment and awakening that mobilized her to act — reaching within to her own personal accountability and calling out her employer to be accountable to the context.

Aided by ‘Distance’ (whether by circumstances or by ability)

It would appear that a critical facet of a potential whistleblower is “viewing from a distance”.

People who are too closely attached to a situation, or welded into it tend to have a blindspot which diminishes their ability to see the nooks, crevices and crannies where the wrongdoing proliferates. And sometimes it may not be a blindspot — it may be a stance of ‘getting away with it while I can”.

The whistleblower has the ability to view with perspective, from a distance. Sometimes this distance may be by ability- willing oneself to step back and see it. Sometimes it may be by circumstance- just consider the number of whistles blown in the US and in Europe against racial and sexist discriminatory policies- by women, people of non-binary sexual orientation, people of color, and minority races, and we can see that these whistleblowers see some of the systemic issues in a way that people who are part of the system and who are benefiting from it the most may not be able to or willing to see!

Unintended consequences

The whistleblower’s actions do not come without unintended consequences, both to themselves and to others in their ecosystem.

At a personal level, there may be protracted legal battles with the Goliaths trying to bring in their money-fuelled might to deal crushing blows to the whistleblowers. They are also likely to face ostracism — maybe doors being shut by other possible employers. As Ed Snowden says, by labelling someone a whistleblower, does it not ‘otherize’ them?

Walls are likely to go up- At the ecosystem level, there are likely to be tighter surveillance measures, more and more restrictions on access to data. As the wag puts it — “Need to know” is likely to move towards “plead to know”, when it comes to information sharing.

The Whistleblower through the TAM framework

The TAM framework (www.taminsights.com, and the SAGE Publications book “Discover the Alchemist Within” are sources for knowing this framework better) is a framework for understanding human beings, human / social systems and human / social phenomena.

The Whistleblower seems to be an interesting symbolic identity that expresses all the four ‘psychological worlds’ of TAM. The “Custodian” identity (World of Structure & Order in TAM) in them provides them the energy and impetus for upholding standards expected of and-or committed by large economic and political systems. The “Warrior-Crusader” identity (World of Autonomy & Initiative in TAM) is on display by them when they go after the cause, ideals and accountability they believe in. Their desire to see a better world where violence and discord are not abetted and where democracy, fairness, justice and compassion have a chance is perhaps behind their enlivening the “Mother” identity (World of Connectedness & Nurturance) and here I can see my TAM Practitioner colleagues suggest the “Healer” identity too. And could it be that the “Trickster” identity comes alive when they spring their surprise and pull the rug right under the feet of the hegemonic powers, and the “Muse” identity (both from the World of Flow & Unfolding) is enlivened in their becoming a spirit or source that inspires many to follow in their footsteps (see below section “A trend is born”)

A trend is born

We certainly are in the early pages of a likely fascinating book, when it comes to the Whistleblower phenomenon. As this article is being written, another whistleblower Sophie Zhang has testified in the UK against Facebook. Earlier, names that come to mind are Julian Assange (established Wikileaks and blew not just a whistle but the lids off several government secrets), Chelsey Manning (also Wikileaks), Chelsey Glasson (blew the whistle on Google), Sergei Savelyev (blew the whistle on the prison system in Russia), Ed Snowden (blew the whistle on the National Security Agency of the USA), Ifeoma Ozoma (blew the whistle on Pinterest), Susan Fowler (blew the whistle on Uber), the list is long and getting only longer.

I would like to end this article by sharing this quote by Martha Nussbaum — “The humanities teach us the value, even for business, of criticism and dissent. When there is a culture of going along to get along, where whistleblowers are discouraged, bad things happen and businesses implode”

The era of whistleblowing would seem to have arrived!