In recent times, whistleblowing has become one of the most popularly debated issues of business ethics. Popular discussion has coincided with the institutionalisation of whistleblowing via legal and administrative practices, supported by the emergence of academic research in the field. However, the public practice and knowledge that has subsequently developed appears to construct a dichotomy of whistleblowing/silence; that is, an employee elects either to 'blow the whistle' on organisational wrongdoing, or remain silent. We argue that this public transcript of whistleblowing/silence overshadows the importance of continuing research into alternative (individual or collective) employee behaviour. Drawing on original research with a financial services organisation, our research uncovers a dissenting discourse that operates through implicit communication, such as codes, sarcasm and jokes. We suggest that this hidden transcript offers significant opportunities for employees to act ethically, and offers the potential to sustain an ethical organisational culture.

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‘Modern slavery’ describes various forms of severe relational labour exploitation. In the realm of global value chains and global factories that are led by multinational enterprises, modern slavery encompasses practices such as forced labour and debt bondage. Multinational enterprises organise and orchestrate global value chains into global factories that are highly adaptive to market pressures and changes in the external environment. We employ the global factory framework to conceptualise when and how global value chains become more vulnerable to modern slavery. We argue that combinations of the three global value chain characteristics: complexity, appropriation arrangements, and obligation cascadence, jointly form an environment in which modern slavery can evolve and take root. The degree to which forms of modern slavery become visible and recognisable depends on the particular combination of these characteristics. External factors can moderate the relationship between these factors (e.g. involvement of non-governmental organisations) or exaggerate their effect (e.g. a pandemic).

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