Why is it so hard to encourage whistleblowers? Maybe it's because fear appears to be a feature of modern working life.

That seems to be the conclusion we can draw from a Harvard Business School study.


In the interview, the researchers HBS professor Amy Edmondson and Penn State professor James Detert say fear of speaking up is built into our systems and the structure of organisations in a modern economy hinders it too.

"Even from an evolutionary point of view, it seems we're all hard-wired to overestimate rather than underestimate certain types of risk-it was better (for survival) to "flee" too often from threats that weren't really there than to not flee the one time there was a significant risk. So, we've inherited emotional and cognitive mechanisms that motivate us to avoid perceived risks to our psychological and material well-being.
"Turning to the modern economy, most of us depend on hierarchical organizations and their agents (i.e., bosses) to meet many of our basic needs for economic support and human relationships. Thus, fear of offending those above us is both natural and widespread. One way we can get in trouble with those above us is to speak up in ways perceived as challenging of authority or critical of cherished programs. Given the exaggerated and real reasons to fear offending authorities, it isn't surprising that people clam up when the signals seem unfavorable."

So what are some of the other organisational issues behind the silence?

The operations of most organisations are built around formal communication channels. This can lead to a heavy reliance on rules and procedures that censor and filter information. Speak up and you are labelled a "complainer" or worse still, a "troublemaker".

Then there is the fact that all organisations are replete with what professor Chris Argyris calls "undiscussables". And the undiscussability itself is an "undiscussable".

The result: a loop that locks in silence.

For more details on these forces, you can check this blog I did on the subject back in March.