Individual ethics are born from promoting a culture of ethics program
e.g. whistleblowing
Whistleblowing is a valuable tool for monitoring the
corporate governance strategy. It warrants employees to act on incidences
of misconduct and help maintain a safe workplace, protect profits and brand
reputation. If nobody is calling your whistleblower hotline, it is contrary
to the international scope of whistleblower programs that effectively utilise
valuable tips and bring wrongdoers to justice.
Under section 922 of the Dodd-Frank
Act, the SEC Commission shall pay awards to eligible whistleblowers that
lead to a successful enforcement action yielding monetary sanctions of
over $1 million. The award amount is between 10 percent and 30 percent
of the total monetary sanctions collected in the Commission's action and
a criminal case.
This month SEC announced a $2 million whistleblower award and informed
the corporate community that the SEC continues to see a significant increase
in the number of tips submitted under the agency's Dodd-Frank Whistleblower
Program. The highest award given by the SEC is more than $30 million for
original key information that led to a successful SEC enforcement action
in 2014.
Ethical Whistleblowing
Therefore, it is vital for companies to ensure that they have strong Whistleblower
compliance programs to prevent and detect violations and encourage employees
to respond and management to take action on careless violations.
In this article, we focus on the ethical issues of whistleblowing, and
how to foster a culture of self-regulation, transparency and accountability
that help management and ensure all stakeholders that business operations
are secured.
Reporting any wrongdoing is principally a moral duty to any law abiding
citizen. However if the program is not correctly installed in the culture
and processes of the business, the whistleblowing action can cause a conflict
of interest between the personal and public spheres within the organisation.
The conflicts often relate to someone sharing knowledge of misconduct,
the benefits involved and those who are not loyal.
However if the business promotes the many components of good governance
whistleblowing will be seen as a natural system of reporting required
by any employee.
Motivation to report
Exposing wrongdoing and encouraging changes in systems must work in the
interests of those they are supposed to protect. However when the whistleblower
is uncertain between loyalty and the moral commitment, this unclear procedure
can distort the whistleblower's perception of the relevance of reporting
and management's ability & responsibility to influence change and ultimately
help to create a safer working environment for their colleagues.
Management must use the data collected in a progressive manner by analysing
the trends with a thorough investigation and determination to punish any
wrongdoing. The contrary would negate the benefits of the whistleblower
concept and cause disrespect in the promotion of an ethical culture within
the organisation.
We will conduct a workshop on Ethics and Integrity on the 22nd March 2016
in Mumbai, India. http://www.copenhagencompliance.com/mailer/mumbai2016/mailer.htm
See also: http://www.copenhagencompliance.com/Responsible-Ethics-&-Integrity-Brochure.pdf
