Courage should be propagated so whistle blowers can come out in timely manner - By Rudra Tiwari, Dehradun, India

 

Courage should be propagated so whistle blowers can come out in timely manner

 

There are several amendments and regulation about the protection of whistle blowers. My research is also for the whistle blowers. What is whistle blower? The person who reveals the wrong doing within an organization to the public or the authority is known as whistle blower. They have to report for the illegal, irregular, dangerous or unethical practices by the employer. As the whistle blower is reporting about the misconduct, frauds and corruption, they are not safe and need courage to do their work. Sometimes unethical actions results in lack of courage to do what is right, they know their duty but they are not so brave to execute their intension. So my research is based on the courage of these whistle blowers. Courage should be propagated so whistle blowers can come out in timely manner.

Methodology of the research

During my research I used many sources to understand about the whistleblower, their advantages, their problems, about courage in whistle blower. I collect the information for my research by reading books, reading journals and news papers, as well as watching videos. At the beginning of my research I was hunting the pages of books and I found a theme that is role of courage in ethics. And the research was started which I explained in my research.

Whistle blowing and courage

Whistle blowing is the alarm given by the whistle blower at the wrong within or outside the organization. The role of the whistleblower is to raise the alarm when he /she found anything risky. This is not to create any kind of panic situation but to alert others to misconduct. Sometimes blowing the alarm resulted in many risks also. So the whistle blower should be courageous and brave to raise the alarm against all the evils. Before giving the alarm the whistle blower should be sure about the evil or misconduct otherwise there will be unnecessary tensions grew among the stakeholders (Ernika Hrnik (2015)). this was a critical factor which make the task of the whistle blower tougher. So there is a need of understanding, courage, and brevity to handle the critical matters in the organization. If the whistleblower is courageous then he/she will perform his/her work well and inform about all the misconducts within or outside the organization which helps the stakeholder to solve the problems and then resulted in good environment in the organisation.

Policies for whistle blowing

The government make it mandatory to have a whistle blowing policies in every organisation. This whistle blower brings the irregularity which is prevailing in the organisation to the management and can expose the employees who are doing that. Then it is the duty of the management to think about the redressal system to minimise the damages which were caused by the irregularity. Government made some policies for the whistle blower. These policies includes that if any employee found anything wrong then they can report to the companies audit committee. Ayushi kalian , Aseem Diddee(2015). Then the company pass the information to the employees who are working in the organisation, for the rights and privilege to be vigilant. It is the duty of the organisation to protect the whistle blower from the harassment.

Clause 49

It is given in section177 of the company act. 2013 that there is a need to establish a vigil mechanism for the employees as well as the directors in the company to report about any type of frauds, or misconduct a which is not appropriate in the prescribed format, this code of conduct should be laid down by the company which gives guidelines for the code of conduct. It is mandatory for all the companies to have a mechanism which is known as whistle blower policy.it plays an important role as the employee got the platform to report any kind of fraud suspected or actual and the unethical behaviour or any kind of improper activities o the board . for the protection of whistle blower the act which is called whistle blower protection act, in the year 2011 was framed. It is to investigate the corruption and misuse of power by the public servants who are alleged doing wrong as government bodies, their projects and offices. Due to these acts whistle blower gain confidence and courage to work fearlessly.

Research about whistle blowing

Various surveys were conducted to know about the whistle blowing as I researched Mary B Curtis (2006) who wrote about certain issues in the internal control systems like confidential reporting and whistle blower hotline in her paper’ Whistle blower Mechanisms: A study of the Perceptions of “Users” and “Responders”’. According to the survey it was found that consistency of the companies is very little for functioning their hotlines.

Three possible determinations attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control were examine to control whistle blower in the paper “Determinants of Whistle Blowing” by CH Ponnee, K .Naidu and W.Zamri (2008). It was concluding in the paper that the training programmes can reduce the deviant behaviour. Report for unethical behaviour is also promoted during the training. In another paper “On Whistle Blowing and Whistle Blowers – A Diagnostic Approach to Human Resource Management Dimensions of Whistle Blowing” by C.Praseeda and K.Lubza Nihar (2009) it was studied about the dimensions of whistle blowing which design the policy of whistle blowing to implement in the organisation. In this paper it was identified that there should be a device instead of a trade union for the report of unethical behaviour. It is noted during the survey that whistle blower are doing very risky work which might result in fear and revenge from the person who was creating unethical behaviour. It is necessary to be courageous but there should be some protection for the whistleblowers. So in the paper “Whistle Blowing Protection – A Watch Dog for the Organization” by S.Srividya and C.Stalin shelly (2012) focuses on the protection. It discusses about the problems of the whistle blowers against wrong practices and corruption. Sometimes these problems are very dangerous. Country like India gave the high importance to give protection and take a serious view and issues laws to protect the employees. An example was given in a blog written by Samar Srivastava (2013) about a person whose name was Dinesh Thakur was the whistle blower was killed and were harassed and jailed and many were killed so it is necessary to protect them.

There is an article “Whistle Blowing Mechanism – A Move Towards Better Corporate Governance” by Sonal Nagpal (2013) which explains the status of the at the time of whistling which is very important for the research. They are feeling very insecure as the employee whom he is whistling may be at higher positions so this whistle blower must be protected. Countries like UK, US, India are giving protection to these whistle blowers and revised the clause 49 which means that every organisation must have whistle blowers.

Priyanka Biswas (2015) in her paper “Role of Employees in Corporate Governance with Reference to Whistle Blowing Policy” also focussed on the policy for the protection of whistle blower. They discussed about the mandatory as well as non mandatory requirements. It is concluded that the judiciary system should place an effective policy for the whistle blower to uplift their spirits.

Categories of whistle blowing

There are two types of whistle blowing. One is internal whistle blowing and other is external whistle blowing. The internal whistle blowing takes place when the misconduct report is for the person of the same organisation. There is a break in the hierarchical chain as there might be some people if higher post is involved in the misconduct. So it is the time for the whistle blower to be courteous and brave to blow alarm against these people without any fear. External whistler blowing is the information outside the organisation; they may be regulating agencies, press or public.

Importance of motivation for whistleblower

It is very important to motivate the whistleblower to explore the matter by two contrasting views. One is e must reveal his claims for the information which were caused by the greed. He should justify his point so to prevent from the misconduct of the high personal price. In many cases it is noted that whistle blowing that it is difficult to find the exact motivation for the unethical environment.

Ways to propagate courage in whistle blowers.

There are various policies issued to propagate courage in whistle blowers. As it is already discussed that the whistle blower is alarming the unethical and evil events in the organisation which sometime resulted in bad results so many whistle blowers are feeing scared in raising alarm against some higher authority employees. So the government of various countries issued many policies to protect them from the harmful consequences of being a whistle blower. There is evidence given by the national whistleblowers centre which was formed in 1988 that in 1777, a group of sailor in United States gave report against the U.S. navy first commodore about the misconduct and the ill-treatment of British soldiers. These sailors were scared that they could face prosecution but the government passed a law to protect them. This protects increase the courage of the whistle blower as they got protects from the law and is free to serve honesty bravely.

According to the federal civil service reform act of 1978, the whistle blowers are having the protection against any kind of discrimination when they disclose the violation of law, rule or regulation, mismanagement, gross waste of funds, abuse of authority, or substantial and specific danger to public health or safety. It means that when they alarm against anyone and the whistle blower got the discriminated treatment then that would against the law of protection. So the whistle blower got freedom to speak and find anyone who s unethical in the organisation or outside the organisation, they gain courage to raise whistle against any one, whether they are employee or the managers. An office of the special council is established for this act win the authority of the merit system protection board. The main purpose of this act is to investigate the report of misconduct. to make sure that the person who is disclosing the information should not be punished by the people whom superior to him. There is a hotline in which the cases of frauds waste or abuse could be reported which would be investigated without giving the name of the whistle blower. The government also enhance the protection of the employees who is opening the hotline to the general accounting.

Theory about whistle blower

Richard De George's Theory: he proposed that the external whistle blowing is morally permissible only when these three conditions are fulfilled. One is if product causes serious harm to the general public. second is if an employee realizes the danger to the customers of a proc]duct then it is the duty of external whistle blower to report to the manager to make aware of the treat who is responsible for the manufacturing .third is if the moral concern is not taken b the supervisor regarding the product into account. There should be a valid reason for the employee to go in public to bring necessary changes. There is risk in the benefits of the whistle blower which encountered the danger.

Pros and cons of whistle blower

Everything is having their pros and cons so do with the whistle blowers. Whistle blowers are also having pros and cons. The main pros of the whisle blower are that by encouraging them the negative practices are exposed. It is important to create a good culture internally by supporting the employee which also resulted in controlling the external problems. So this internal whistle blower brings the negative practice in the notice which makes the organisation to rectify it.

On the other hand whistle blowers are having cons also as it will damage the repuration of the business particularly if t is exposed in public domain. Amt type of public expose reflects bad.

Sometime reports of the whistle blowers are wrong because in an organisation sometimes wrong things are done by someone but the brain power was someone else. So it is the duty of the whistle blower to report about the actual culprit. They must have courage to reports about the real faults.

Conclusion

It is concluded from the research that "Whistleblowers not only provide the initial stimulus for improving organization efficiency and effectiveness, but also they are often the source of solutions to organization problems" (Miceli et al., 1991). Whistle blower is in confusion between his work and prevention of social harm. He always sacrifices his own interest with the interest of the organisation. This whistle blower must be institutionalized. They should have the set of procedures for the employees so that they could report about the frauds and unethical behaviour and could raise the voice against it. As it is seen that whistle blowers got the protection from the government and they gain the right to do their work without any fear. These protection and laws increase the confidence of the whistle blower. Courage is also increase due to the step of the government. The whistle blower is having courage to raise their voice against the unethical behaviour and frauds in the organisation. They don’t have to be scared by anyone because of protection right. When the whistle blower is active, brave, courageous and bold to report about all the frauds and unethical movements in the organisation and on the other hand when the company solve these problems by taking action through training the employees. In this training they should explain the meaning of honesty as well as the benefits they are going to have for being honest change the whole scenario of the organisation which resulted In strong internal relation as well as external relations.

References:

1.     Whistleblowers Protection Act, 2011: www.manupatrafast.in (last updated on

9th May 2014)

2.     G20 Anti-Corruption Action Plan: Protection of Whistleblowershttp://

www.oecd.org/g20/topics/anti-corruption/48972967.pdf

3.     Ernika Hrnik (2015). Understanding Whistle Blowing: A set theoretic approach. Journal of business research. Vol 68 (2), 442-450.

4.     Ayushi kalian , Aseem Diddee(2015). Whistle blowing policy in India-needs and challenges. Law mantra online journal.

5.     Mary Curtis B (2006). Whistle Blower Mechanisms: A Study of the Perceptions of “Users” and “Responders”. The Indian Institute of Internal Auditors. 1-23.

6.     Ponnu.CH, Naidu.K, Lamri.W (2008). Determinants of Whistle Blowing. International Review of Business Research papers. Vol. 4 ,276-298.

7.     Praseeda C and Lubza Nihar K(2011). On Whistle Blowing and Whistle Blowers – A Diagnostic Approach to Human Resource Management Dimensions of Whistle Blowing Studies. Corporate Governance- Millennium Challenges, 253-269.

8.     Srividhya.S, Stalin C.Shelly (2009). Whistle Blowing Protection – A watch dog for the organization. International Journal of social science and Interdisciplinary research Vol.1,204-211.

9.     Priyanka Biswas (2015). Role of Employees in Corporate Governance with reference to Whistle Blowing Policy. Academike Lawctopus Law Journal and Knowledge centre

10.  Sonal Nagpal (2013).Whistle Blowing Mechanism – A move towards better Corporate Governance. Global Journal of Management and Business studies, Vol. 3, 855-860.