Among several social issues, whistleblowing is one of the major issues which individuals or employees linked to an organization have to face at some point in their lives. We must understand that all businesses do not run on ethical standards no matter how much they pretend to believe in ethics and fair dealing. Landau (2013) mentioned that there are certain practices or wrongdoings going on at different levels which employees ignore or consider less important whereas some employees do take notice of any unethical activity and can see how the consequences can create losses for the organization in the long run-in such case, it becomes necessary to blow a whistle meaning disclose publicly about it in good faith. However, the sad fact is that whoever engages into whistleblowing act usually gets mistreated because of poor protection by the law. Recently, whistle blowing has begun to receive major attention of socialists, researchers and law enforcing bodies.
So we can say that whistleblowing is all about informing the concerned parties about any illegal or unethical practices, policies or actions going on within an organization with the aim of preventing its long term affects. Blowing a whistle about any issue is not as easy as it seems. Usually the wrongdoers are the ones who have some kind of power because of which they are not afraid to manipulate the system. People observing wrong actions when report to the management, questions are asked about their wrong behavior and in case, the management discloses the name of whistleblower, the opponent party would make his survival difficult with continuous threats and harassments.
Types of Whistleblowing
Roa (2007) mentioned that there are basically two types of whistleblowing:
Internal Whistleblowing
External Whistleblowing
Internal Whistleblowing
Internal whistleblowers are the employees within the organization who notice any misconduct within the organization and decide to highlight the issue in front of the human resource department or higher ranks of management for immediate action.
External Whistleblowing
When employees within an organization disclose wrongdoing to the public or law making bodies so that necessary actions could be taken for correction then we regard it as external whistleblowing. External whistleblowing becomes necessary when the organization fails to mend the identified unethical practice and therefore, intervention of external law enforcing bodies or media becomes mandatory.
Why is Whisteblowing Important?
Previously, whenever employees noticed wrong practices going on within the organization by an individual or team members, he never dared raising voice against it because he knew well that doing so would get him into real trouble. There were no regulations to protect his identity. It will become very likely that blowing the whistle would put the poor employee under stress as he would face threats and obstacles would be created in his goal achievement path. If the whistle is blown against the employer, chances are that the employee would lose his job which would disturb his overall career development. The trend has however changed now. It is being realized by organizational members and researchers that whistleblowing is a very significant issue which must be addressed with special attention. Employers also encourage whistleblowing because if employees conceal facts due to fear of losing job or life threats, then things would only go towards devastation and then it will become too late for mending.
Albert Einstein once mentioned that the world has taken up shape of a very dangerous place; he does not blame those who do the evil but those who can see and analyze malpractices and do nothing about it. This implies that raising voice about issues with the intent that once this particular concern is addressed, the organization will benefit from it. Therefore, the importance of whistleblowing is accepted and special rules and policies are designed in order to encourage it.
Advantages of Whistleblowing
Whistleblowing can bring several advantages to organizations such as blowing whistle about a malpractice means that an employee really cares for the wellbeing of organization and whistleblowing is his act out of loyalty and commitment. Not only the employee feels valued about being an integral part of the organization but the management or human resource department appreciates him for blowing whistle. Usually is happens that employees do not raise concerns about any wring practices because of fear of losing job or being bullied which is basically a cowardly act- blowing the whistle about unethical practices at the right time is essential as it saves the organization’s reputation by allowing it to take sound and corrective measures before things take a worse shape.
When organization encourages whistleblowing, stakeholders will express more trust and confidence and the worth of the organization would increase. It also gives the organization a status of being responsible at corporate level because protecting the interests of clients is seen as an ethical practice. When whistle is blown at the right time, the organization can minimize any losses or risks which strengthen its internal capabilities. Whistleblowing can also save the organization from lawsuits which it could face if unethical practices go unnoticed and later cause serious damages to the society. Whistleblowing can timely save the organization from any accidents which can directly affect its stakeholders (Arnold-Smeets, 2014).
Disadvantages of Whistleblowing
Apart from advantages, there are a number of disadvantages associated with whistleblowing. A whistleblower can be recipient of disrespect and ridicule in the organization if he works at a low paid position. This not only hurts his self respect but also disturbs his motivation and commitment level which can give a bad name to overall reputation of the organization. An organization where whistleblowing is discouraged, the employees will be fearful of their actions and may feel psychologically burdened. In a culture where employees stay quiet because of the fear of threat and job loss, the overall productivity of the organization will suffer. In several organizations, there is less awareness or compliance to the laws made for protecting the rights and anonymity of the whistleblower. In such circumstances, whistleblowing is regarded as an act of disloyalty towards the organization- management fails to notice the whistle blown by the employees and in return humiliate their courage to speak. When the rights of employees are not protected and privacy is not given importance, the employees will not speak about malfeasance which may result in harmful consequences. When employees are discouraged from whistleblowing, they would prefer to work in organizations where their opinions are trusted irrespective of gender, social status and personal grudges-employee turnover increases when organizations fail to understand and accept the importance of whistleblowing.
In organizations where there is little awareness of the concept of whistleblowing, the whistleblower has to meet with discrimination and isolation from his team mates-sometimes, the manager might ruin the appraisal of the whistleblower just because he would consider his responsibility as an insane action. Such rotten behaviors from managers and team mates are common where conventional policies are prevalent and there occurs a large communication gap between employees and senior management. Sometimes, employees make use of whistleblowing to express their personal conflicts with the system or their colleagues which is unacceptable and can create a negative culture throughout the organization (Soeken & Soeken,1987).
Who Suffers Due to Whistleblowing?
It must be mentioned that people who smell any unethical practice and report to higher authorities are the ones who have strong moral values. If these employees belong to lower or middle class then it is likely that they will face warnings and job loss threats from those in power. In cases where employees blow whistle against corruption, they usually do so at the risk of their lives because those in authority would go to every level to save their reputation. Women whistleblowers are discouraged at both organizational and societal levels. The viewpoints of women are not really seen as authentic and valuable by most societies as their status is considered as inferior to men. The male dominated society would rarely pay heed to women whistleblower which certainly is wrong. Similarly, if the whistleblowers are immigrants or LGBTQ citizens, their judgments are also questioned and the nationals would treat their opinions with mock. People of one racial or cultural belief would never pay any attention to the whistle blown by those belonging to contradictory cultural and religious groups as their personal differences weigh more than identification of issues which can cause more harm. Usually those social groups are bullied which belong to lower or middle class, inferior gender or have association with an substandard caste, culture or religious group. When these scales of socirty are given value within and outside the organization, then the core issues receives no attention unless an irreversible nature of damage takes place.
Whistleblowing Laws
Law making bodies and agencies which work for the protection of human resources in organizations at both public and private levels have come up with certain rules and regulations which aim to ensure that the whistleblower will not receive any kind of retaliation and also that the employer cannot take any adverse actions against him if the issue highlighted comes out to be authentic. In the United States of America and United Kingdom as well as several other developed countries, whistleblowing acts have been passed by the government which offers a proper mechanism of whistleblowing and prevents the whistleblowers from harm. Whistleblwing Protection Act, Public Interest Disclosure Act and Sarbanes-Oxley Act are few of the many laws which are enforced at present in organizations aimed at encouraging employees to report any wrong doings such as fraud, corruption, fake claims, substandard production, non adherence to international standards etc to the immediate manager or the human resource department so that instant measures can be taken to address the issues identified and prevent the organization from going into financial losses at the stake of its hard earned reputation.
Recommendations for Promoting Whistelblowing
There could be several ways which organizations can use to encourage whistleblowing. Firstly, all employees must be given awareness of the concept of whistleblowing by offering leaflets, special seminar sessions, training programs so that they understand how being a whistleblower can save the organization from long term harms. Training programs and articles in newspapers and blog on whistleblowing encourage the employees to bring any malpractice to light so that corrective measures can be taken to prevent further damage and serious legal actions can be taken against those who caused it so that repentance of similar events in future can be minimized. Employees must also be made aware of whistleblowing acts which ensure protection of their identity. By enforcing such laws into organizational practices, employees will express eagerness to blow the whistle because they would feel safe and protected while expressing their concern for organizational betterment. When a whistle is blown, a team formed of senior members investigate the issue and if found that the whistleblower intentionally blown the whistle just to take personal revenge from someone, then action is taken against him.
Another way that organizations can use to create awareness about whistleblowing is by letting the employees know how much the organizations can suffer if they conceal malpractices through various training programs. Law making bodies can hold special talk sessions in various organizations with the aim of informing the employees how whistleblowing can benefit the organization. Employees must be provided education about laws which have been passed in UK and several other countries for the protection of whistleblowers. These laws ensure the privacy of whistleblowers so that they could not be bullied by those exposed as a result of whistleblowing. All organizations must form a team for investigation of issues highlighted by the whistleblowers so that appropriate measures can be taken to fix things up before it gets too late. It is better to deal with issues internally rather than involving media and public as it is likely that the image of organization will suffer. However, when the nature of issues is such that public awareness becomes essential, then the whistle must be blown externally.
Whenever whistleblowing program is introduced in an organization, it must be ensured that the program is being effectively implemented by making use of surveys and questionnaires. Reviews of employees about the topic can also be gathered so as to find out if he core concept behind whistleblowing has been communicated and all employees have positive views about it. Whenever an employee blows a whistle, the special investigation team must engage itself in finding out whether the unethical issue pointed out is genuine or not before taking any further actions.
Conclusion
We learned about the concept of whistleblowing and its significance in the context of social and business environment. Identifying malpractices or any unethical issues in an organization which if left unattended can cause harm in the long run is called as whistleblowing. Whistleblowers sometimes prefer to stay quiet and ignore important issues because they are scared of being bullied or mistreated by seniors or offended ones. Laws and regulations have been passed to protect rights of employees and those with low social status. Training programs if introduced with proper monitoring can ensure that no unethical issues go unnoticed and immediate corrective can be taken.
References
Arnold-Smeets, L. (2014). Why Being a Whistle-blowing Employee Is a Good Thing. Available: http://www.payscale.com/career-news/2014/01/why-being-a-whistle-blowing-employee-is-a-good-thing. Last accessed 28th Jan 2016.
Landau, P. (2013). Whistleblowing: is new 'public interest' test a good thing?. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/money/work-blog/2013/jun/25/whistleblowing-public-interest-edward-snowden. Last accessed 29th Jan 2016.
Roa, F, C. (2007). Business Ethics and Social Responsibility. Manila: Rex Book Store, Inc.. p145-147.
Soeken, K., & Soeken, D. (1987). A survey of whistleblowers: Their stressors and coping strategies. Proceedings of the Hearing on HR, 25(1), 156-166.
