Ian Foxley 

Research

Title of Research:

A political sociology of whistleblowing

Brief overview of research topic:

An empirical examination of the reasons why people do NOT speak up when they might do so, using a case study of the Saudi Arabian National Guard Communications (SANGCOM) Project. 

This is a qualitative, phenomenological investigation into the decisions made by public officials when confronted by ethical challenges in foreign defence procurement contracts, using insider and ethnographic methodologies.

It explores the reasons offered by those who did not speak up, endeavouring to tunnel down to the root causes of individual silence and its relationship to organisational silence and context to produce a culture of silence.

Qualifications

Qualifications:

MA Applied Human Rights 

BSc (Hons) Applied Science

Presentations

Foxley I, (1988), The Politics of Generalship, British Army Review 19 and 20, HMSO.

Foxley I, (1994), Command and Control Warfare (C2W), Army Doctrine and Training News, Number 1, May 1994, HMSO.

Foxley I, (2005), Educating Daddy, Bentwyck Henry Publishers.

Foxley I, (2011), God's Quartermaster, Amazon Kindle Edition (May 2011).

Armstrong AF, Foxley I, Francis RD (2015), Whistleblowing: a three-part view, Journal of Financial Crime, Vol.22(2).

Foxley I, (2017), Overcoming Stigma: applying Whistleblowers' experience to Human Rights Defenders, Centre for Applied Human Rights, University of York, September 2017.

 Foxley I, (2018) Overcoming Stigma:Whistleblowers as ‘supranormal’ members of society?, Ephemera Journal special issue: “Speaking truth to power: the ethico:politics of whistleblowing in contemporary mass-mediated knowledge economy”

Why whistleblowers must be kept confidential – just look at what happened to me, The Conversation, 7 Nov 2019.

Foxley I, (2021),  An Ancient Virtue, Special Report: Whistleblowers: the lifeblood of democracy, Index on Censorship, Vol 50, No 2,  

Conference Papers

'Looking at the Man in the Mirror' - 2013 AFCE European Fraud Conference, Association Certified Fraud Examiners (AFCE), Prague, 18th March 2013.

'The Experience of a Whistleblower', Integrity in Business Conference, Weltethos-Institute, Tübingen, 19th November 2013.

'The Whistleblower's experience', Information – Shield, Sword, and Achilles Heel kin the fight against economic crime, 32nd Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime, Jesus College Cambridge University, 1st -7th September 2014.

'When Compliance goes wrong- a whistleblower's tale', INSEAD Healthcare Compliance Implementation Leadership Programmes, INSEAD, Paris, 30th June 2015.

'What is and is not whistleblowing?', The limits of the Law: the role of compliance in the 21st Century, 33rd Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime, Jesus College Cambridge University, 6th -13th September 2015.

'Ethical partnering with employees to avoid whistleblower surprises', Annual Conference of the International Bar Association, Washington DC, 18th -23rd September 2016.

'Whistleblowing and why it matters', 11th Annual conference of the Yorkshire and Humber Fraud Forum, Leeds, 16th November 2016.

'Looking at the Man in the Mirror' (Updated paper), Paderborn University, Germany, 6th June 2017.

'Looking at the Man in the Mirror' (Updated paper), Annual Conference of the Fraud Forum London, London, 12th October 2017.

'Whistleblowing and Fraud', ICAEW Corporate Governance Community, London, 7th February 2018.

'How to make a Whistleblower – a recipe for disaster', CMS, City of London, 8th November 2018.

‘To blow the whistle or not?’ - a symposium on complicity and compliance in economic and social wrongdoing, ReCSS Interdisciplinary Symposium, University of York, ESRC Social Sciences Festival, 9th July 2019  

Exploring Complicity and Compromise: Airbus - a case study, 38th Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime (CISOEC), September 2021

Teaching Experience

Ian has 8 years experience lecturing and as a seminar leader including:

Leadership and Confidence Building to junior management in Catterick (1982-1984);

Communications Theory and Practice at the Royal Australian School of Signals, Melbourne, Australia (1985-1986); and

Command and Control, Communications, Electronic Warfare, Media Studies and Ethics at the Defence Academy (previously the Army Command and Staff College, Camberley) (1992).

Graduate Teaching Assistant, in Democratic Politics, Politics Department, University of York (2018 – present). Shortlisted as GTA of the Year (2018 - 2020): not yet won!