This chapter examines the modern evolution of whistleblowing legislation and practice in Norway and its implications for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Our discourse analysis spans legal provisions, scholarly research, and national surveys and reports on whistleblowing. A finding is that the whistleblowing institution is tied to a power inter-est in encouraging employees to speak out, predominantly to prevent severe public interest damage to the population and economy. Yet, we have found that the law’s broad whistleblowing concept has led to the predominance of commonplace personal-related cases within organisations’ whistleblowing channels. Our analysis further aimed to dis-cern whether this prevailing broad understanding of whistleblowing serves the public interest or rather prioritises individual grievances at its expense. Both organisations’ whistleblowing routines and research surveys exploring the landscape of whistleblowing tend to be based on or are bound by the broad whistleblowing concept in the legislation. Consequently, we have limited tools for assessing whetherwhistleblowing serves the public interest and is an efficient mechanism for detecting when CSR fails. We examine recent research indicating an increase in retaliation against whistleblowers. However, the broad whistleblowing concept makes it difficult to discern whether this increase targets public interest reporting, individual grievance reporting, or both. Consequently, our ability to assess the effectiveness of whistleblowing to restore CSR is impaired. The Norwegian Supreme Court recently interpreted the whistleblowing provisions, solidifying a low threshold for what constitutes whistleblowing. A dissenting minority highlighted the provisions’ intent: whistleblowing in the public interest. Against this background, we conclude by providing suggestions for improving the whistleblowing institute and its potential as a CSR mechanism.
Karlsen, Heidi & Alm, Kristian (2025)
Varsling i Norge – en historisk studie Begynnelsen: forløpere, oppkomst og nyetablert praksis, 1968–2007
The paper addresses an understudied but highly relevant group of people within corporate organizations and society in general—the marginalized—as well as their narration, and criticism, of personal lived experiences of marginalization in business. They are conventionally perceived to lack traditional forms of power such as public influence, formal authority, education, money, and political positions; however, they still possess the resources to impact their situations, their circumstances, and the structures that determine their situations. Business ethics researchers seldom consider marginalized people’s voices and experiences as resources to understand their lives, as demonstrated through a review of 7500 articles published in the Journal of Business Ethics and Business Ethics Quarterly (2000–2019). Only 78 studies included aspects of marginalized groups. 69 of those studies discussed the topic of marginalized groups of people, but without integrating their explicit voices into the text. Only 9 of the 78 articles featured marginalized people’s explicit voices about their marginalization experiences incorporated into the text as a source for exploration. None of the identified studies discussed the potential for theorizing based on such voices. This paper contributes to business ethics theory by developing four theoretical possibilities vis-à-vis the critical voices of marginalized people’s experiences in business: (a) marginalized theory on critical agency and freedom of speech; (b) the gatekeeping role of academia; (c) primary sources; and (d) a participative perspective. Discussing the theoretical potential of quoting the above voices can enrich business ethics research in terms of the theoretical understanding of marginalized groups in business.
Alm, Kristian & Rendtorff, Jacob Dahl (2020)
Human Rights Violations at the Workplace: Uncovering and Documenting - Günter Wallraff's Activist Whistleblowing Method
The aim of this chapter is to provide a theory of activist whistleblowing for justice and dignity as the framework for detecting injustice and human rights abuses in business and organizations. This is important for trust and business legitimacy. We suggest that whistleblowing is an important field of human rights in business and essential for creating public awareness of human rights abuses and democratic engagement in promoting human rights in business. In order to develop such a theory, we use the activist work and controversial life of the German journalist and writer Günter Wallraff based on a confrontation with the dominant concepts of whistleblowing in relation to business and human rights.
Alm, Kristian & Brown, Richard Mark (2020)
John Rawls' concept of the reasonable: A study of stakeholder action and reaction between British Petroleum and the victims of the oil spill in the gulf of Mexico
In his political philosophy, John Rawls has a normative notion of reasonable behaviour expected of citizens in a pluralist society. We interpret the various strands of this idea and introduce them to the discourse on stakeholder dialogue in order to address two shortcomings in the latter. The first shortcoming is an unnoticed, artificial separation of words from actions which neglects the communicative power of action. Second, in its proposed new role of the firm, the discourse of political CSR appeared to offer a promising synthesis of deliberation and action. However, the discourse has been criticized for its shortcoming in failing to provide a regulatory environment for corporation—stakeholder dialogue. Through our interpretation of Rawls’ notion of reasonableness in citizens, the article makes two important theoretical contributions to the debate on stakeholder dialogue. First, we transfer Rawls’ injunction in insisting that dialogues between business corporations and their weaker stakeholders must be understood as consisting of both verbal exchanges and actions. Second, we propose that the coercive power of government ought to provide a necessary context for stakeholder dialogue, and that by doing so, it can provide a way forward for the discourse of political CSR. We illustrate the usefulness of this contribution from Rawls in an analysis of BP’s behaviour towards thousands of victims following the Deepwater Horizon blowout in 2010.
Alm, Kristian; Brown, Richard Mark & Røyseng, Sigrid (2016)
Kommunikasjon og ytringsfrihet i organisasjoner
Alm, Kristian & Rendtorff, Jacob Dahl (2016)
Whistleblowing as Employee’s Freedom of Speech. Günter Wallraff's authorship as an illustrative case
In 2007 five different industrial food producers merged to become one single firm. This paper places focus on the challenge these actors had in deciding on, implementing, and using an information system to support mainly their raw material purchasing and finished product sales function. Studies show that a large part of information system implementation failures are related to insufficient alignment between various aspects or parts of an organization and the new technology (Miller 2001, Wognum 2004). A report of a working group from The Royal Academy of Engineering and The British Computer Society concerning the challenges of complex IT project (RAEng, 2004) supports this view stating that the most pressing problems are related to the human aspect of processes involved in these kinds of projects, and that further developments in methods and tools to support the design and delivery of such projects could help to raise success rates. Among key findings of this study were: • The levels of professionalism observed in software engineering are generally lower than those in other branches of engineering, although there are exceptions • Senior managers are often ill qualified to handle issues relating to complex IT projects • The importance of project management is not well understood and usually underrated • The vital role of the systems architects in major IT projects is frequently not appreciated and there is a shortage of appropriately skilled individuals • Basic research into complexity and associated issues is required to enable the effective development of complex, globally distributed systems
Alm, Kristian & Sievänen, Riikka (2013)
Institutional investors, climate change and human rights
An Annotated Bibliography of Norwegian Whistleblowing Research 1975-2023
[Report Research].
Oftedal, Elin Merethe & Alm, Kristian (2023)
Understanding responsibility across spheres
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Alm, Kristian & Guttormsen, David S.A. (2021)
ENABLING THE VOICES OF MARGINALIZED GROUPS OF PEOPLE IN THEORETICAL BUSINESS ETHICS RESEARCH
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Alm, Kristian (2021)
En teori om tillit som nøkkel til å nyfortolke sokratisk dialog
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Gran, Anne-Britt; Kristensen, Linn-Birgit Kampen, Røssaak, Eivind, Furseth, Peder Inge, Sverdljuk, Jana Bentze, Alm, Kristian & Moreno, Valentina (2019)
Bokforbruk, bibliotek og lesing i digitale tider. DnD-rapport nr. 4
[Report Research].
Alm, Kristian (2018)
The dark side of the moon": a theoretical framework of complicity applied to the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global
[Lecture]. Event
Alm, Kristian (2018)
Etiske perspektiver på varsling - diskusjon og forslag til tiltak. Høringsuttalelse til NOU 2018: 6 Varsling – verdier og vern. Varslingsutvalgets utredning om varsling i arbeidsliv
[Report Research].
Alm, Kristian (2018)
John Rawls’ concept of the reasonable – a pilot study of British Petroleum’s behaviour in its stakeholder engagement with the victims of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Brown, Richard Mark & Alm, Kristian (2017)
John Rawls' concept of the reasonable - a key to Stakeholder Dialogue. British Petroleum's compensation for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Alm, Kristian (2016)
Günter Wallraff - journalisten som varsler
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Alm, Kristian (2016)
Stakeholder Dialogue and Rawls’ Reasonable Disagreement
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Alm, Kristian (2016)
Innledning
Alm, Kristian (red.). Innledning
Brown, Richard Mark & Alm, Kristian (2016)
Stakeholder Dialogue and Rawls' Reasonable Disagreement
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Alm, Kristian (2015)
Plagiarism as risk in co-authorship.Advisors co-authorship with PhD-students in 521 PhD-dissertations in 4 research institutions in Norway
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Alm, Kristian (2015)
Supervisor’s coauthorship of PhD-dissertations in Norway
[Lecture]. Event
Alm, Kristian (2014)
Research ethics and plagiarism
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Alm, Kristian & Gils, Suzanne van (2014)
Etisk kommunikasjon. Å kommunisere om etiske problemer og avgjørelser på en etisk måte
Alm, Kristian & Gils, Suzanne van (red.). Etisk kommunikasjon. Å kommunisere om etiske problemer og avgjørelser på en etisk måte
3rd edition!
Dette kapittelet utforsker forholdet mellom etikk og organisasjonskommunikasjon. Vi diskuterer begrepet «etiske dilemmaer» og illustrerer typer dilemmaer som kan oppstå i organisasjoner. Kapittelet redegjør for ulike etiske teorier, inkludert konsekvensetikk, pliktetikk og dydsetikk, og gir en omfattende forståelse av etisk beslutningstaking som ligger til grunn for kommunikasjon. Derunder diskuteres kort Sokratisk dialog som en metode for etisk utforskning av kommunikasjon. Etisk ledelse blir fremhevet, med vekt på hvordan ledere kan utnytte etisk kommunikasjon. Dette blir diskutert basert påvia Jürgen Habermas’ diskursetikk, som kaster lys over betydningen av etisk ledelse i etiske diskusjoner, og av velbegrunnet enighet. Kapittelet avsluttes med en diskusjon av det som kan oppstå som et godt alternativ; velbegrunnet uenighet, med henvisning til John Rawls’ tenkning. Til slutt utforskes den institusjonaliserte ytringsfriheten som et verktøy for etisk kommunikasjon innen organisasjoner.
Alm, Kristian & Gils, Suzanne van (2014)
Etisk kommunikasjon
Alm, Kristian & Gils, Suzanne van (red.). Etisk kommunikasjon
Alm, Kristian (2014)
Chains of trust or control? Identyfying a stakeholder dilemma
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Alm, Kristian (2014)
Etisk kommunikasjon: å si fra om kritikkverdige forhold
Alm, Kristian (red.). Etisk kommunikasjon: å si fra om kritikkverdige forhold
Alm, Kristian (2013)
A whistleblowing on plagiarism and three declarations on its legitimacy
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Alm, Kristian (2013)
En kritisk vurdering av Harald Grimens tillitsteori
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Alm, Kristian (2011)
”Trust as rationalization in professional chains – an ethical challenge.”
[Conference Lecture]. Event
Alm, Kristian (2011)
Etikk og god rådgivningsskikk
Alm, Kristian (red.). Etikk og god rådgivningsskikk
