The problems with whistle-blowing: U.S. v. Wailly

✍ Scribed by Frederick V. Malmstrom

• Book ID: 102398808
• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 137 KB
• Volume: 2
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 2041-8418
• DOI: 10.1002/jpoc.20067

✦ Synopsis

Whistle-blowing is traditionally a dangerous, unequal activity that pits the individual against his or her own organization. The author examines the 1975 U.S. Air Force Academy embezzlement case of U.S. v. Wailly, including the reluctance of numerous parties who allegedly disregarded advance warnings about Major Louis F. Wailly's criminal activities, as well as the subsequent organizational fallout from the affair. Survey data from 2,600 service academy graduates from 1959 to 2010, and a Volunteer Contribution Mechanism (VCM) experiment with 72 cadets discount the conventional wisdom that whistle-blowing and loyalty are necessarily moral tradeoffs. Whistleblowing as a model of the suboptimal Nash equilibrium is also examined.