Question

What advice would you give to management faced with a potential whistle-blowing situation? What should management do, and not do?

Answer 1

Whistleblowing is a situation of passing on information of wrongdoing. When an employee or worker of the firm comes across any malpractices or wrongdoings of the firm, then “making the disclosure” also known as blowing the whistle is dine by the employee. He passes on the information about the wrongdoing and disclose the information so that it can be stopped as early as possible. The wrongdoing can be at the work place as well as outside the surroundings of the workplace, the persons involved in the such malpractices can be anyone working under the premises of the company.
The management should handle the situation seriously and at a bigger level once it receives the message of suspected misconduct. Not only the investigation of the whole case but its receiving, process, investigation, closing and how the whistle-blower is in continuous knowledge throughout the process. The management should carefully handle the receiving and replying to the whistleblowing message because this reflects the efficiency of the management and how they take their employee’s concern seriously. Their should be responsiveness and transparency in the investigation process of the case on behalf of the management as this builds a sense of trust amongst its employees. The non bias nature of the management shall make a trust a believe in the working environment of the company. Following the rules, laws and regulations is very much necessary to commence a smooth process of investigation.
The management should set up a right team for the management and investigation of the particular case. The points to be taken care of in whistleblowing management are such as who should receive the message, how many people can the team comprise of, etc. Considering whether the internal or external or third-party whistleblowing management is right for the organisation is necessary. Last but not the least the management should be responsive enough for whistleblowing in the organisation.