“Death Threats don’t Just Affect You, They Affect Your Family”: Investigating the Impact of Whistleblowing on Family Identity

Abstract

Organizational whistleblowers routinely encounter retaliation such as job loss, ostracism, intimidation, and death threats which can impact their “master status,” or core identity. Questions remain about whether whistleblowing experiences can “spill over” into homes, affecting family identities. This study aimed to understand how spillover related to whistleblowing affected family identity, and to identify communicative factors which influenced family identity (re)construction. Thirty one individuals, including 15 whistleblowers and 16 family members of whistleblowers, were interviewed for this study. Data analysis revealed three family identities emerged from whistleblowing experiences: affirmed families, wounded families, and fragmented families. Social support processes and boundary management played key roles in family identity (re)construction. These findings engender theoretical implications for effective negotiation of work-home spillover and social support processes, whistleblowing models, and whistleblowing policies’ impacts on families. Specifically, findings indicate boundary negotiation that facilitate matching levels of social support was integral to maintaining healthy family identities.