How retaliation to whistleblowers can land your company’s reputation into a Fiasco
Whistleblowers can sometimes pay a high price for telling the truth. As they may be targeted for retaliation from the company or organization they belong to. The company’s retaliation can result in the whistleblowers being ostracized and downgraded from their position at work where some might be fired, or even jailed.
While retaliation can be a harsh consequence for the whistleblowers, it can land the company in trouble. The company might think their action to force the whistleblowers to withdraw their claim or refrain from further disclosure will work well. Unfortunately, in particular conditions, these actions can make the whistleblowers even more determined to further disclose information through an external channel.
According to Regh et al., in their study titled “Antecedents and Outcomes of Retaliation Against Whistleblowers: Gender Differences and Power Relationships,” there are at least three reasons why whistleblowers tend to opt for using external channels.
First, some of them may use external channels because the misconduct or the wrongdoings are so intolerable that they cannot accept the failure of using internal methods to stop it. Second, others may believe that using an external channel or going public will provide more protection from worse retaliation. Third, the whistleblowers may consider that the retaliation they have suffered from following internal whistleblowing methods was procedurally unjust. This condition may drive them to counter-retaliate the organization by using external channels.
Once a person blows the whistle in public, it will become a major fiasco for the company’s reputation and performance. It is one of the reasons why your company has no choice but to ensure that your company‘s policies and whistleblowing system are robust enough to protect whistleblowers.
One of the efforts that your company can do to implement a robust whistleblowing system is to hire a third party. Why? A whistleblowing system from a third party would enable your company to have a secure report system while guaranteeing the anonymity of the whistleblowers at the same time. There are many providers in the market. However, it is critical to choose a provider that upholds the utmost integrity.
Integrity has extensive experience in providing whistleblowing services for clients with various business backgrounds. Through the Canary Whistleblowing System, Integrity delivers a combination of multiple reporting channels that are centralized on website applications and our clients’ accessibility to reports, while still guaranteeing the anonymity of the whistleblowers. If your company is ready to take the whistleblowing system seriously, Contact us today!
Also Read:
Whistleblowing System: What Indonesian Universities Can Learn From Standford University
6 Common Problems That Reduce Robustness of Whistleblowing
Why Your Corporation Should Treat Whistleblowers as Assets
