Chapter 4: Discovering the Grey Zone Between Corruption and Whistleblowing: Histories from the Italian Public Administration

The theme of corruption represents a critical social issue, considering the impact that it has on the economic and social life of countries (Anand, Ashforth, & Joshi, 2004; Ashfort & Anand, 2003; Thomas et al., 2004; Trevino & Brown, 2004). This is particularly true when considering the public sector, where the interests involved are much more than those of a restricted private audience, but rather those of multiple stakeholders related to the public interests (Gnan, Hinna, & Monteduro, 2013; Knott, 2011; Svara, 2014). Literature has largely debated on how scandals related to public servants’ corruption, opportunistic behaviors, and rent-seeking, increasingly characterized the public administration (Knott, 2011; Knott & Miller, 2006; Mengistu & Vogel, 2006; Shaw, 2013). As a consequence to the tentative of corruption, the literature has always highlighted two possible behaviors: accepting corrupt proposal (thus becoming “corrupted”), or doing the whistleblower (thus denouncing the tentative of corruption) (e.g., Pinto, Leana, & Pil, 2008). These two behaviors clearly represent the two opposites of a possible large scale of different behaviors that might represent a “grey zone” between the extremes. Indeed, for different reasons, people might react to a tentative of corruption with nuanced behaviors that could be more or less close to the acceptance of corruption or to the whistleblowing, but that not necessarily are perfectly identifiable as the one or the other. Not all people are equally susceptible to corrupt practices through the pathways of socialization. For instance, newcomers in organizations usually bring an unalloyed perspective to organizations in many organizational matters. Since they are not hardwired to the firm’s routines, it is likely that some might refrain or resist from becoming a part of corrupt activities even in the presence of strong organizational factors (Manz, Joshi, & Anand, 2005).