Wards Accounting Seminar Series. "Whistleblower support, human rights adn the authoritarian state"
Published: 12 January 2026
4 February 2026. Professor Iain Munro, University of Newcastle
Dr Daniela Pianezza, University of Verona, Italy
"Whistleblower support, human rights and the authoritarian coroporate state"
Wednesday, 4 Febuary 2026. 12:00-13:30
Room 489, The Adam Smith Business School building
Abstract
Despite new laws designed for their protection, whistleblowers continue to suffer from social exclusion and retalation, especially when they confront centres of corporate and state power. This seminar will present some recent cases from both corporate and state whistleblowing, which shows how the ciminalization of protest and growing authoritrianism was prefigured by the treatment of whistleblowers. The analysis draws on ethical concepts from human rights and critical social theorists such Hannah Arendt, Jacques Ranciere, and Edward Said to describe parallels between the mistreatment of whistleblowers and the growing criminalization of protest more generally. This involves analysis of cases from our new book Perspectives on Whistleblowing, including first hand accounts from industry and national security whistleblowers, a human rights lawyer and journalists.
Bio
Iain is Professor of Leadership and Organization at Newcastle Business School. He has previously worked at the universities of Warwick (1994-2000), St Andrews (2000-2009), and Innsbruck (2009-2013). He has diverse research interests and has published articles in Organization Studies, Human Relations, Organization, the Journal of the Operational Research Society and the Journal of Business Ethics. He has written a monograph on "Information Warfare in Business: Strategies of Control and Resistance.
For further information, please contact business-school-research@glasgow.ac.uk
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First published: 12 January 2026