ABSTRACT
People in the organization often keep their mouths shut tight—at least publicly or when speaking to those in power—about concerns that something is not quite right, headed for disaster, or already in ethical meltdown. They may believe or suspect that the organization’s direction, values, culture, code, code enforcement, or practices need careful rethinking or emergency attention and yet not breathe a word of this to anyone in the organization who has power to do something about it. This chapter reviews the research on the culture of silence that plagues so many organizations, on the factors that support or prevent people from speaking up about ethical concerns and problems, on the sense of psychological safety within organizations, on what happens to whistleblowers, and on creating an organizational culture in which each person throughout the organization not only receives encouragement and support in raising ethical questions and concerns but also shoulders the personal ownership and responsibility for speaking up when there’s a problem.
