ABSTRACT
Whistleblowers are men and women who publicly call individuals in their own organizations to account for behavior that they, the whistleblowers, deem inappropriate by some standard. Virtually all bureaucracies in every institutional arena have elaborate written codes of ethics crafted by attorneys, compliance officers, moral philosophers, public relations and advertising practitioners, and other interpretive experts, all of whom are part of the ethics industry. Such written codes always stake out lofty moral ground and are seen as essential for gaining and maintaining public good will. In the corporate world, different standards are typically at work. There, up-and-coming young people must exhibit dexterity at invoking ethical codes and their accompanying rhetoric if they wish to triumph in the ongoing scramble for authority, power, and prestige. Some whistleblowers turn to the all-powerful media to expose wrongdoing in their organizations, always a dangerous tactic.
