A doctoral journey to analyse speaking up in high hazard environments
Michelle Edmondson - PGR Student, Doctor of Business Administration, Year 3 of 4. Institute of Business, Industry and Leadership
Michelle’s research centres on whistleblowing and the world of work. The core focus is on perceptions of employees in a high hazard sector regarding whistleblowing practices and understanding how lessons from external cases and interviews might strengthen these whistleblowing practices.
Whistleblowing is a term that can be used interchangeable with speaking up, raising a concern whistleblowing, or speaking out. There is a growing movement in practice to use the ISO 37002:2021 definition of the EU Directive (2019/1937), that whistleblowing is ‘the act of reporting suspected wrongdoing or risk of wrongdoing’.
Broad engagement in the field of whistleblowing has been key to Michelle’s DBA journey. She focused on whistleblowing in the education sector as part of a Masters in Organizational Psychology. Michelle then had the opportunity to author a practice. The chapter discussed how whistleblowing policies move into practice and the implications for organisations and employees. By understanding different viewpoints, leaders and managers can reflect on how successful whistleblowing policies in practice are, and for whom. This was a key pre cursor to the DBA.
Combining studies with her day job at Sellafield Ltd, which recently included a secondment to the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero and work on the National Audit Office (NAO) and Public Accounts Committee (PAC) investigation, Michelle keeps up to date with whistleblowing developments. When a call for evidence came from the NAO investigation into whistleblowing in the civil service (House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, 2024), Michelle responded in affiliation with the University as a researcher. Key points included developing an understanding of different viewpoints when handling whistleblowing cases, with a call to consider power, encourage speaking up and view it as an early risk warning tool.
Currently, Michelle is using institutional isomorphism theory as her key doctoral conceptual framework, considering how organisations in the same field become similar over time due to pressures such as following rules, mimicking others and adopting professional standards. Using this framework as a tool to critically analyse whistleblowing in a high hazard sector, from a qualitative, social constructionist stance may reveal debates on organisational behaviours which could be adopted to improve whistleblowing in practice.
Some of the key challenges as the research is developing is going through a robust ethics process prior to commencing primary interviews in early 2026. It is important to protect interviewees who may be vulnerable if engaging in whistleblowing conversations. Michelle is also focusing carefully on reflexivity and academic rigour – considering her own biases and role as a researcher then how this impacts the research, and how to ensure a qualitative data collection process is robust to enable high quality analysis in the later part of 2026.
For more information Michelle can be contacted at michelle.edmondson@uni.cumbria.ac.uk
www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-edmondson-594237175
Michelle’s DBA is funded by her employer, Sellafield Ltd.
Michelle’s Director of Studies is Dr Erica Lewis, Co-Programme Leader - Doctor of Business Administration and Senior Lecturer in Leadership and Social Sustainability.
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