ABSTRACT
Time and again similar messages come out of official inquiries into major scandals and disasters. They reveal that people who worked in or with the organization had seen the problem but had either been too scared to sound the alarm or had raised the matter in the wrong way or with the wrong person. Quite apart from the tragic human costs and enormous financial damage caused in these cases, they undermine public confidence not only in the organization concerned but also in business and governments more generally. These wider implications are serious. In a changing competitive world, the very success of business, public bodies and new technologies relies on public confidence in their openness and probity.
