As already noted, the second report from this project will supplement the above findings with a more detailed guide to current and prospective best practice for the management of whistleblowing at an organisational level. This research focuses on the 15 case study agencies and includes further comparative analysis of the quantitative data relating to those agencies, interviews with individual whistleblowers, case-handlers and managers, review of written procedures and operational systems and workshops with agency representatives.
From the studies undertaken so far, six priority areas for future research can also be identified:
longitudinal research on how agencies are handling whistleblowing matters, including reporting, inaction and mistreatment rates, in order to measure whether legislative and procedural reforms are having an effect
longer-term tracking of the life and career outcomes of a wide cross-section of public interest whistleblowers, recognising that participants in the present studies were restricted to those who had reported wrongdoing within the previous two years
further research into options for practical internal witness support and management intervention as an alternative or adjunct to strategies based primarily on confidentiality
closer study of the handling of reprisal allegations in whistleblowing cases, to identify with even greater precision why such cases are so complex, and how and by whom they can be best handled and resolved
closer study of the forms of compensation available to employees who suffer adverse outcomes from reporting, including informal compensation and the positive action taken by agencies to extend justice, and how these efforts might be more effectively supported by the broader legal and management frameworks surrounding workplace relations in the public sector
more detailed analysis of the training needs of agencies.
While the conclusions reached in this chapter show that institutional responses to whistleblowing have a long way to go, this new picture of public sector whistleblowing shows it will be worth the effort to travel the necessary distance. These data show that, in a field of policy and public management that previously looked wholly bleak, many more of these complex conflicts are being, and can be, resolved in a positive manner. By managing whistleblowing better, outcomes can be found that are just to individuals, serve the long-term interests of organisations and better discharge our institutions’ wider obligations to transparency and public integrity.