The efficacy of protection: the effects of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act of 2012 on the Transportation Security Administration

Abstract

Over five decades, US civil service laws institutionalized federal employees’ whistleblower rights through a series of reforms since 1978. In 2012, the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act extended statutory protections to employees of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for the first time. This quasi-experimental study evaluates whether these legal protections changed the perceptions of TSA employees by enhancing their behavioral control over the opportunity to blow the whistle. Changes in TSA employee perceptions of behavioral control are compared to changes in perceptions in three control agencies, using a difference-in-differences estimation. We further consider whether TSA managers’ perceptions change in unique ways, in comparison to the control agencies. The results indicate that providing protection only changed TSA employees’ behavioral control over whistleblowing immediately after passage, but not over the long term. Further, the law did enhance TSA managers’ perceived behavioral control differentially. Policy implications for reconstructing the shield is provided.