Vad är risken med att blåsa i pipan? : En fallstudie om hur visselblåsning kan fungera som en del av en kommuns interna kontroll

Sammanfattning: In the last years, research has increasingly focused on internal control of municipalities. Increased awareness about wrong-doing scandals, which may have been caused by a whistleblower who has revealed an irregularity, is a contributing factor. Blowing the whistle could however signify a risk for the individual, but if no one dares to speak the organization could be damaged. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore how whistleblowing could work as a part of the internal control in a municipality, and also what enables and hinders employees of the municipality to report wrong-doings. A qualitative case study took place in the municipality of Kristianstad, with an abductive approach. The majority of the empirics was obtained through ten semi-structured interviews, which were carried out at different organizational levels. We chose to analyze different factors with the perspectives from an individual-, group- and work environment level. The result is that whistleblowing can be a part of a municipality's internal control by implementing a whistleblowing policy where employees can report wrongdoings anonymously. It is important to consider the complications that a formalization of a whistleblower policy might bring for the investigation process that follows a reported wrong-doing. Empirical investigation identified various factors that enable and hinder reporting. The prime factor that enables reporting is good leadership from managers, which will support and inspire trust. The main factor that hinders is retaliation through degraded working relations within the work environment. The empirical investigation also indicated that some factors both enable and hinder reporting of wrong-doings, which indicates on a complex situation that the organization should be aware of. This dissertation offers a contribution to the society by raising awareness about illegalities within municipalities, if they proceed during a long time it can cause an issue of inter-generational equity.