{"id":50040,"date":"2015-10-16T08:54:53","date_gmt":"2015-10-16T07:54:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/?p=50040"},"modified":"2021-01-07T19:33:22","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T18:33:22","slug":"whistleblowing-reputation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/whistleblowing-reputation\/","title":{"rendered":"Corporate Reputation: Speaking Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"whistleblowing\"<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing\u201d
\nThomas Burke<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Nobody plans to become a whistleblower.<\/p>\n

But sometimes someone finds out that something unethical, immoral, illegal or inappropriate is happening in their workplace or industry sector, and feels that they must report it.<\/p>\n

This is a difficult and stressful activity particularly if they need to report something being done by a colleague or employer. Whistleblowers risk losing their job—and, depending on their work, they may find it difficult to find another job in the same sector. <\/p>\n

Or if they don\u2019t lose their job, their lives in and out of work can be made very difficult because of hostility felt towards them by employers and\/or fellow staff. <\/p>\n

And their families may be put under enormous stress—not helped if the case gets media attention.<\/p>\n

Yet these are people with courage and integrity, who are doing the right thing. And companies who care for their corporate reputation try to encourage this behaviour.<\/p>\n

Big companies try to make blowing the whistle as easy as they can, often signing up for an external service, so that employees (or others: suppliers, contractors, customers or business partners) can report something—in theory—without fear of retaliation.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t entirely altruistic: misconduct by employees damages a company\u2019s reputation, and a good whistleblowing service —usually a phone line—can alert the company to a problem early, giving them a chance to deal with it before reputation damage occurs. And a reputation for a strong ethical culture never hurts…<\/p>\n

So creating a quality system to enable whistleblowing is important, and a good system will support the employee as well as the company.<\/p>\n

Make it easy<\/h2>\n