Why would accepting whistleblowers be good for IBM?
IBM has business presence in more than 170 countries. Further, IBM has approximately 400,000 employees. Retrieved from http://www.ibm.com/ibm/responsibility/basics.shtml. For an organization of this size, it is highly advisable to accept whistleblowing polices to protect whistleblowers, not only from the corporate governance perspective but also to serve the twin objective of compliance with good human resource practices and global anti-corruption laws like Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, 1977 applicable in the United States of America and the UK Bribery Act, 2010 of United Kingdom.
IBM Corporate Governance vis-à-vis Whistleblowers Policy
Good corporate governance demands that there are appropriate disclosures at all levels to ensure compliance with applicable laws. Implementation of a formal whistleblowing policy would only serve to strengthen the corporate governance norms.
IBM Human Resource Practices vis-à-vis Whistleblowers Policy
It goes without saying that the only way to provide a conducive working atmosphere to employees is to instill them with a confidence that their voices will be heard and that there will not any adverse retribution on account of any disclosures being made by them. Accepting whistleblowers by chalking out an effective whistleblowers policy would be nothing but a step in the right direction.
IBM Anti-Corruption law compliance vis-à-vis whistleblowers Policy
External corrupt practices by company officials can be nipped in the bud if there are adequate internal disclosure norms which can only be effectively implemented if there is a parallel whistleblowers policy in place.
