ABSTRACT
The incidence of identified whistleblowing in the 2010/2012 Greenwood corporate survey was not significantly different from the 1980, 1983, or 1992 federal studies, but it was higher than the 2010 MSPB survey. The MSPB reported the drop in identified whistleblowing from 1992 to 2010 was a positive trend because "the ability of whistleblowers to protect their identity is important to them". Public relations role theory and Excellence theory did not appear to explain many of the study results. Within the context of roles theory, helping to develop an organization's Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblowing channels would be an example of operating in the communication manager or executive role. The finding that public relations and communications executives operate more as technicians than as communication managers on the topic of Sarbanes-Oxley implementation could mean that they are not part of the dominant coalition to the degree predicted by role theory and Excellence theory.
