The Impact of Digital Government on Whistleblowing and Whistle-blower Protection: Explanatory Study

This paper focuses on the contribution of digital government (DGOV) to Whistleblowing (WB). While considerable efforts have been devoted to DGOV and WB separately, research work at the intersection of these two domains is very scarce; hence and a systematic DGOV for WB (DGOV۴WB) research framework has yet to emerge. This paper aims to identify the potential issues in whistleblowing and explore how digital government has been used to address these issues. To this end, this paper uses explanatory case study research methodology and analyses four case studies of existing DGOV initiatives with explicit WB dimensions. The result of the cross-case analysis shows that DGOV۴WB initiatives contribute to address goals of the different dimensions of whistleblowing. The most common WB problems addressed are: easily accessible reporting and response whistleblowing channels (Whistleblowing Procedure), easy and timely communication channel with top management (Whistleblowing Organizational culture), and anonymous and confidential communication platforms (Whistleblower Protection). In addition, based on the analysis of the case studies, all the initiatives are classified as either engagement or contextualization stage of the digital government evolution model.