How whistleblowing works in the corporate environment

Honesty is the basic requirement that is expected from all employees in the organization. The employees should work with utmost dedication and be honest with their words and work. Whistleblowing policy is used by organizations to promote efficient and clear communication throughout the organization. It is used to make employees develop good faith for the organization. It even prevents any wrongdoing in the workplace and encourages employees to come forward and share their concerns with the upper management.

Getting familiar with whistleblowing

It is when an employee raises his/her voice towards anything that is unfair, unethical, or harmful towards them or the company. The person who raises their voice for the well-being and reputation of the company is called a whistleblower. Companies are seen motivating their employees to blow the whistle to safeguard their reputation and avoid trouble. Sometimes, it becomes problematic for the whistleblower to share information which is why they prefer hiding their identity and coming in front of everyone.

Employee reluctance to blow the whistle

Employees are reluctant to blow the whistle as it might be a threat to their life depending on the confidentiality of the information. Which may result in loss of job or transfer from one office to another. Sometimes, companies are reluctant to give increments to those employees who blew the whistle although they have done a favour to the organization. Lastly, it may also result in losing friendly relationships with teammates as they might fear that their mistakes will be exposed directly to the management.

Whistle blowing is essential

It is defined as raising voice against any concern so that the employees can protect the welfare of the company and their individuality. This also helps the employee to experience a sense of belonging towards the organization. Whistle blowing can report any sort of fraud, wrong presentation of data or any illegal activity. There are generally two types of whistleblowing.

Internal whistleblowing

It is when an employee raises his or her voice against something which is happening within the organization.

External whistleblowing

It is when an employee raises his or her voice on platforms outside the company. It can be for any illegal activity or misconduct ruining the image of the company.

Incorporating whistleblowing culture within the organization

1. Whistleblowing policy works best for those organizations which have an open culture in terms of communication and acceptance of others point of view. Any employee can raise their voice over anything that disturbs the decorum of the organization. If there is a closed-door policy, employees will hesitate and think many times before disclosing any information to the management.
2. Employees should be provided with a formal training where they know their rights, the hierarchy to report anything mischievous, and duties on whistleblowing. It is the company’s responsibility to provide formal education to all level employees about the aspects of whistleblowing, so they are not hesitant in raising their voice over any issue. Also, companies should formulate strategies regarding protection of whistleblower, and it should be informed to the employees.

Even the stakeholders should be aware of this policy, and they should know how to use the policy to protect the company’s image.

3. Organization should be serious and committed towards creating a strong culture to promote whistleblowing and should make it work on ethical grounds. Whistleblowing should be taken care of properly and officially along with formal investigation done.

Whistleblowing works best where management and the work culture has open communication. So, companies should use this approach to increase and protect the image of the organization and to safeguard important information. This has now become a general standard which is followed by many companies in the corporate environment as bigger the size of the organization, there are many chances of whistleblowing incidents to take place.