Major Jack J. Wells: A Case Study Illustrating the Prosocial Organizational Behavior (POB) Model of Whistle-Blowing and its Ancillary Model of Retaliation

• In Event: The History of Prisons and Whistle-Blowers in the United States

Abstract

This case study is based on the personal background and letters Major Jack J. Wells wrote over his 21-year career, first in the US Army, and later as a civilian public safety advisor for the U.S. Agency for International Development in 1965. At the 2014 ASC conference, evidence from the letters were used in conjunction with the prosocial organizational behavior (POB) model of whistleblowing to show how decisions made by the individual were influenced by the situation, the organization that committed the alleged wrongdoing, the relative power of the parties over one another, as well as the consequences for the individual disclosing the wrongful behavior. At the 2015 ASC conference, the letters provided evidence of how personal variables, such as characteristics, upbringing, morals, motives, and perceptions, facilitate whistle-blowing. After focusing on archival and field research in both the U.S. and Vietnam during 2016 and 2017, this case study sheds new light on the POB’s ancillary model of retaliation. Emphasis will be placed on how the retaliation model yields new evidence on the possible circumstances that led to Wells’ mysterious death, the details of which are still classified by the Central Intelligence Agency.

Author

• James B. Wells, Eastern Kentucky University