MBA student investigates whistleblowing
When Debbie Gee embarked on her MBA at Victoria Business School, she had no idea it would lead to her presenting at a prestigious conference in Chicago.
After a long career in communications management, MBA study appealed to Debbie because of the ability to study different aspects of business and leadership in one course.
"At the time I was deciding what to study for my final MBA business research project, the Ministry of Transport whistleblowing case was in the public spotlight. I’ve always been interested in theories of leadership, engagement and organisational culture, as well as whistleblowing," she says.
"This case provided an opportunity to delve into all of these areas using this case as a reference point, so it seemed the natural path to pursue."
Prolonged and serious fraud by Joanne Harrison, the former Ministry of Transport senior manager at the centre of the case, raised questions of how she had been able to get away with it despite attempts by employees to draw attention to her repeated non-compliance with policies.
Basing her case study Can you hear the whistle blow? on information released under the Official Information Act, Debbie chronicled Harrison's activities and attempts by these staff to draw attention to her behaviour.
Debbie also covered the negative consequences for staff at the time, detailed in a State Services Commission investigation. She coupled this with teaching notes that explored what could be learnt from this case in relation to theories of organisational culture, engagement, compliances and leadership, as well as more formal structural matters relating to whistleblowing.
A shorter version of Debbie’s MBA research, Taken for a ride, was co-authored by Debbie’s research supervisor Associate Professor Todd Bridgman from the School of Management, and submitted to the international Dark Side Case Study Competition.
The competition, which features cases that seek to learn from problems in organisations, is run by the Academy of Management (AOM), a professional association for management and organisation scholars with members across more than 120 countries.
The case study was accompanied by extensive teaching notes based on a literature review including readings that analysed theories of protected disclosures, organisational ethics, and the role that culture, leadership, change, and expectations of conformity might play in organisational responses, over and above formal legislative, infrastructural, and policy settings.
The hard work put into the initial research and the revised case study paid off when the case study was selected as one of the three finalists in the competition and Debbie was invited to present at the annual AOM conference in Chicago this year. The University helped Debbie meet the costs of travelling to the conference.
"The conference was fantastic. It was a great opportunity to network, and of course share my research. It was great to get along to the other sessions and presentations too," said Debbie.
Debbie recommends completing an MBA to everyone.
"The MBA broadened my outlook and added a theoretical foundation and validation of some of the things I knew, while also having the opportunity to learn completely new things," she says.