Whistleblowing is an act of external or internal information exposure that is usually performed by the lower-level employees aiming to raise awareness of certain issues, which are deemed unethical, incorrect, or illegal. These staff members are called “whistleblowers” as in correlation with those who blow a whistle, thus alerting people about the danger. Being not a new practice, whistleblowing is still a difficult task for most employees, though many agree that it has a certain impact on the organization’s culture.
Cases of whistleblowing, as we call it now, were first registered in the 19th century, but became the subject of research only in the middle of the 20th century. In the 1980s, Near and Miceli proposed to define whistleblowing as ‘‘the disclosure by organization members (former or current) of illegal, immoral or illegitimate practices under the control of their employers, to persons or organizations that may be able to effect action” (as cited in Pitroff, 2013, p. 400). Today, whistleblowing remains controversial since the community is divided into those who support the idea, and those who consider it as a betrayal.
Whistleblowing is agreed to be challenging for many employees. The main reason for this would be the fact that being critical can turn the worker into the object of “victimization” (Hilton, 2016, p. 329). The act of revealing the information undermining the company’s prestige can cause disapproval of colleagues and a “wall of silence and hostility by management” (Drew, 2015, para. 3). This is why employees often find it difficult to blow a whistle.
Whistleblowing can affect the culture of an organization both positively and negatively. If the organization management encourages the employees to come forward with something that seems to be a problem, it will likely have positive effects. The relationship of trust and confidence between top management and lower staff has all the chances to lead to positive outcomes and effective performance. Alternatively, if management does not believe in the benefits of the whistle-blowing systems, the latter will not be effective (Pittroff, 2013). Moreover, acknowledging that subordinates can harm the image of the top management, the latter may not interfere in the misconduct at the lower levels and thus protect themselves against “the threat of whistle-blowing” (Friebel & Guriev, 2012, p. 1024). This strategy is likely to ruin the organization’s culture, where everyone prefers one’s interests to the interests of the company.
HR Managers are responsible for establishing a healthy trust-based environment in the company. As an HR Manager, I would ensure that whistleblowing is considered the tool for enhancing the company’s image and performance. Lower-level workers usually have detailed information about the company’s wrongdoing (Friebel & Guriev, 2012). In this matter, I would promote them to inform about everything they think is wrong. I believe it is possible to implant this activity if we start with smaller issues, for example, the creaking door at the office, the spilled water in the bathroom, or noisy workers in the neighboring office. As a result, the employees will adopt a habit to share information that may help to improve the organization’s environment.
My organization promotes whistleblowing at each level. It was not easy at the beginning because the staff members felt uncomfortable with informing the management about someone’s mistakes. However, the management was able to convince us that nobody would be harmed because information always contributes to preventing the damage for the organization. Eventually, we have managed to build the relationship of trust and confidence resulting in better performance of the company.
Thus, one can conclude that whistleblowing practice is gradually losing its negative meaning and moving towards being considered as a regular corporate policy, which contributes to a company’s external success and internal relations.
References
Drew, D. (2015). Francis NHS whistleblower report: a new beginning?The Guardian.
Friebel, G., & Guriev, S. (2012). Whistle-blowing and incentives in firms. Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, 21(4), 1007-1027.
Hilton, C. (2016). Whistle-blowing and duty of candour in the National Health Service: A ‘history and policy’ case study of the 1960s and 2010s. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 109(9), 327-330.
Pittroff, E. (2013). Whistle-blowing systems and legitimacy theory: A study of the motivation to implement whistle-blowing systems in German organizations. Journal of Business Ethics, 124(3), 399-412.