The Major Concern for Most of the Organisation - Essay Example

?Ethics and Whistleblowing Table of Contents Context Page 3 Introduction 3 Research Question 8 Why Do Whistleblowing Matters 8 Approaches to Whistleblowing 9 Cases Where Whistleblowing Had Happened 9 ENRON Case 10 Dealing with the Whistleblowers 10 Advantages and Disadvantages of Whistleblowing in an Organisation 11 Why Should Companies Enable/ Promote Whistleblowing 11 Organisations Development of Effective Approach of Workplace Whistleblowing 12 Stakeholders and Their Needs 12 Codes of Conduct in Whistleblowing 13 Rules and Regulations in Organisation And Out 14 Leadership Style 15 Mission Statement 15 Company Assurance and Impression 17 Conclusion 18 References 19 Bibliography 22 Context Page The report deals with whistleblowing and workplace ethics. It tries to develop an analytical understanding of the ethical issues that the modern organisation faces. The paper will try to analyse the ethical issue such as whistleblowing and their resolution on organisational context. Introduction ‘Whistleblowing’ basically refers to make any kind of disclosure in the general interest of public. The term is more commonly referred as ‘blowing the whistle’. If the employee working in any organisation feels that there is wrongdoing in their workplace, then they can report this to the management by following the correct processes. By doing so, their employment rights can be protected. It is worth mentioning that the whistleblowers are shielded for the public interest in order to encourage the people to speak out if they feel that any kind of malpractice is going on in the organisation (DirectGov 2011). The statistics published in public interest reveals that the people’s attitude towards the whistle blowing has improved to a great extent. The survey conducted by ‘Public Concern at Work’ in the year 2007 indicated that 85% of the people informed that they would raise a concern with regards to the malpractices that is taking place with the employers. It was further made evident that 31% of the people would go to the regulatory bodies or to the police if the ‘internal route’ was not considered as the option (Public Concern at Work n.d.). Growing awareness of employee rights, Public Interest Disclosure Act (1998), Health and Safety Executive, PR practices, CSR and Internal Codes of Practices have resulted in improving the condition for whistleblowing. UNISON, a public service union collaborated with Public Concern at Work in order to conduct survey to ask 2000 NHS staffs if whistleblowing was working or not. It was found that around 90% of them had blown the whistle at times when they were concerned about patient safety. 50% were not aware of the fact that their ‘Trust’ had a whistleblowing policy. 33% revealed that their ‘Trust’ wanted to blow the whistle despite being aware of the fact that it would result to bad publicity. 30% revealed that their ‘Trust’ didn’t want them to be told that there was a severe problem while 25% said that the culture was improving (Public Concern at Work n.d.). This statistics can be shown graphically with the help of the chart below: Source: (Public Concern at Work n.d.). Source: (Public Concern at Work n.d.). Other Statistics on Whistleblowing Source: (NWC 2008). The figure that is demonstrated above depicts the companies that report operating a whistleblowing system and the percentage of those companies that consider it to be effective (NWC 2008). It has been found from the report that approximately 5678 cases of whistleblowing were received in the fiscal year 2009, which was up by nearly 2000 over the prior fiscal year (Worldwide ERC 2011). The major aim of this study is to evaluate how the organisations can develop an effective approach to the workplace whistleblowing taking into account the needs of its stakeholders. Research Question The main objective of the research is to evaluate how the organisation can develop an effective approach to workplace whistleblowing that takes into account of the needs of their stakeholders. Therefore, the whole assignment will be based upon this research question. Why Do Whistleblowing Matters It can be observed that whistleblowing really matters to all the people and the organisation. The reason behind this is that every business and the public body face a kind of risk. Whenever any kind of risk arises from the activities of the organisation then the first person who is supposed to know about this activity must be those who work in that organisation. Unless and until the culture of the origination supports and declares that it is quite safe to raise the concerns with regards to the wrongdoing, employees may feel that they face victimisation, losing their jobs and thus damaging their career. Whistleblowing matters irrespective of whether the person is a consumer, an employer or the manager of the company. After viewing the damaging effects of the culture, it was recommended by the UK Committee on Standards in Public Life for the organisations to take necessary steps in order to assure and enable the staffs to raise the concerns relating to whistleblowing effectively. The main reason behind the set up of the committee was that huge damages were being done to the public confidence by the incidents of wrongdoing that has not come to the notice of the management prior to real damage. The other kind of damage that primarily was being done to the public confidence was by rumours of misconduct that was impossible to effectively refute or substantiate. Approaches to Whistleblowing The statutory approach is based upon the assumption that the observers of wrongdoing will report to the concerned authority until and unless he is discouraged from doing so because of the fear of retaliation. However, the researches have suggested that this approach towards the whistleblowing is unwarranted. Therefore, in this regards an alternative legislative approach towards the whistleblowing can be proposed that would prove more successful to encourage valid whistleblowing and portray a model for such legislation which will assist in self-monitoring of the ethical behaviour by the organisation and will also benefit the society (Dworkin & Near 1997). Cases Where Whistleblowing Had Happened There are innumerable cases of whistleblowing. However, one of them can be considered here in this report. In UK’s fundraising company named Orbis which was part of the US based international charity, the resource director Miss Azmi raised her concerns internally regarding breaches of ‘charity laws and circular funding’. It was well known to her that her predecessors had raised similar concerns to Charity Commision. It was noted that on the day formal request for information was made by the Charity Commission. It was revealed to Miss Azmi that she had failed in her probation period because of the poor performance. However, ET rejected this claim and as a result Miss Azmi won the case (Public Concern at Work 2000). ENRON Case It was evident that around thousand of the Enron workers were unemployed as well as deprived of their pension. It was further noted that Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling, the guilty verdicts did not do much to improve the situation. Moreover, it was found that Sherron Watkins who was the former Enron vice president blew the whistle on the shady accounting at the company. It was testified by Sherron Watkins that she had warned Ken Lay regarding the Enron’s financial problem. As a result it was found that her job was threatened (NPR 2011). Dealing with the Whistleblowers A process named as Model Accounting Complaint-Handling Process or most popularly known as the MACH process has been developed that can assist in dealing with the whistleblower complaints swiftly and efficiently in association with auditing, accounting as well as internal control over the financial reporting. The complaints are handled as effectively and smoothly as possible. It also helps in providing a meaningful structure and flexibility so that it becomes possible for any organisation to adapt the technique easily. There are various other ways through which the whistleblowers can be dealt with. The organisations can provide training for managers and employees to handle concerns without reprisal in workplace. The whistleblowers can be provided with financial incentives. This will have the potential for the management to bestow appreciation to those who come up with the cost-saving idea and those who went a long way to create the right kind of culture. In addition, sufficient information, protection and positive encouragement of whistleblowing may also help in dealing with it. Advantages and Disadvantages of Whistleblowing in an Organisation Whistleblowing can be advantageous to an organisation if it is done from moral motive. It can also be considered as morally justified in case when the whistleblowers has compelling evidences. The disadvantage of whistleblowing is that the whistleblowers are always under serious threat of salary cuts, loss of chance of promotion, joss loss, which pose difficulties for the individual development in the workplace (Arszulowicz & Gasparski 2010). The other advantage of the whistleblowing for the employees is that it leads to the end of ‘long-standing’ wrongdoing in an organisation. It upholds a law and also prevents from further damages. It also promotes accountability and discourages bad practices. It further helps the organisation to save the costs and bad publicity which is associated with public disclosure as well as legal actions. It also demonstrates that the organisation is quite fair and honest. While the other disadvantage of whistleblowing is that it may ruin the reputation of the company and the business in general. The employee or the whistleblower may have a fear of being seen as a snitch and a disloyal whistleblower. He may not feel safe in general and may have the fear of dismissal as well. Why Should Companies Enable/ Promote Whistleblowing It is important for the companies to manage or to promote the whistleblowing in order to prevent from further damages in order to create a better working environment and a positive atmosphere. Moreover, the internal whistleblowing reduces the risk of external exposure. If the companies have a whistleblowing policy then employees feel secure about blowing the whistle. It also creates a positive attitude towards being more aware and also a higher quality of work can be expected from them. Organisations Development of Effective Approach of Workplace Whistleblowing An organisational culture plays a significant role in encouraging and consequently discouraging an employee from whistleblowing. Therefore, an organisation can develop an effective approach related to workplace whistleblowing by providing their employees enough courage that they would not face any negative repercussion if they see any wrongdoing and would prefer to bring that incident into the public. Stakeholders and Their Needs In order to customise the MACH (Model Accounting Complaint-Handling) process it would be prudent to identify the stakeholders and understand their needs. According to the MACH Process, there are three sets of stakeholders: users, accused parties and other interested parties. It is to understand that the stakeholders may be both internal as well as external to the company. It is worth mentioning that the complaints of whistleblowing are received from the internal sources such as the employees of the companies, the management and the directors. Therefore, in this regards it can be said that the whistleblower complaints are generally insiders. The outside complaints may be in the form of customers, suppliers, vendors and investors. There are other interested parties as well who are involved in the investigation or may require certain information at different phases of the process. If anyone wishes to express a concern then they should be encouraged to do so. This becomes too critical for the internal users who may have anxiety about the fact that filing a complaint may cost them a job or have certain other negative consequences. If the potential users feel that the whistleblower complaint handling process is a potential barrier and might fail to effectively meet the needs, then they may not fully adopt the process. Therefore, the obstacles have to be identified and removed. The external users are those whistleblowers who are outside the organisation. The claims that are received from the external parties may not be kept anonymous since the external parties also have the same needs as that of the insiders. Along with the internal users and the accused there are other parties as well who may be affected by the investigation. The investors, the public relation specialist and the marketing team, who need to inform to the company personnel and the public regarding the matter also has a stake in this case (Thornton 2009). Codes of Conduct in Whistleblowing Before understanding the code of conduct in the whistleblowing, it is prudent to comprehend what the code of conduct really signifies. It can be explained as a set of rules and regulations that make reference to laws, regulations, directives and rules that apply to a particular company. The most important part to understand here is that the code provides the employees an overview of their obligations to the companies as well as their colleagues. The major advantage of the code of conduct or the whistleblowing policy is that the code of conducts acts as a warning system. In this context, the major question here is whether all the organisations need a whistleblowing policy or the code of conduct. The answer to this is that all organisations require a whistleblowing policy whether as a ‘stand alone policy’ or as a part of the comprehensive code of conduct. It would be quite easier for the organisation to introduce the whistleblowing policy or the code of the conducts prior to receiving claims or unwanted publicity (Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer 2006). Rules and Regulations in Organisation And Out In order to ensure that the person is protected by the rights as laid out in the policy, one needs to ask himself whether his concerns are genuine and raised in good faith and are not motivated with the intent for personal gain. According to the rule, one needs to raise the genuine concerns about the suspected malpractices at an early time period and in the right and legitimate way. One needs to contact the Regional HR or the Group HR Director and the Group Risk Manager (Temenos 2009). According to the rules of whistleblowing, confidentiality is required in order to protect legitimate interest. Even though the harassment is illegal for the whistleblower they deserve confidentiality so that it can protect him from harassment. Moreover, turn-around in the internal risk-communication culture has to be achieved as soon as possible. Leadership Style The leaders in the organisation have the responsibility towards the followers in their organisation to create a better work environment. For example, the leaders need to create an environment for their subordinates through which empowerment can be promoted so that each of them gets the courage to speak up regarding the matters that are unethical or wrong. If this is done then occupational health and safety can be assured. The upper level managers must be willing to promote for whistleblowers who would speak about the practices in the organisation that is believed to be harmful or inappropriate. In the United Kingdom there is legislation that shields the employees (Marquis & Huston 2008). Mission Statement The company’s mission statement also has a role to play in the whistleblowing. The mission statement depicts the goals and the values of the organisation and states what the organisation stands for. If the explicit mission statement is conceived as the object of loyalty, then there is object of loyalty that is compatible or that coincides with the object of whistleblowing. The term rational loyalty here indicates that there is need for the individual to provide a thought on whether his/her act contributes to explicit mission, goals as well as values of the organisation he/she is loyal to. If it is found that the organisation is diverting from its mission statement then this would insist him/her to blow the whistle (Vandekerckhove 2006). Company Assurance and Impression Various acts have been incorporated to deal with the matter related to the whistleblowing internally and then encourage the employees to implement the internal mechanism in order to cope with the disclosures. However, the companies do not assure that the allegation that has been made by the whistleblowers will be investigated. It becomes utmost important for the companies to assure the stakeholders and the other interested parties that the whistleblowing is being investigated. The impression and the image of the organisation will be maintained if the problem of whistleblowing is taken into consideration (Arszulowicz & Gasparski 2010). Conclusion An independent authority that works on public interest whistleblowing has been the Public Concern at Work. The charity helps and advices others to raise the concerns related to whistleblowing (Public Concern at Work n.d.). Whistleblowing is the major concern for most of the organisation. Whistleblowing tries to raise the concern about the wrongdoings in the organisation. It tries to explore the illegal and underhand practices that usually take place in the organisation (Dehn & Calland n.d.). It can be argued that whistleblowing is a good practice as it safeguards the people and the organisation from the unethical practices. References Bessie L. Marquis and Carol J. 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