Whistleblowing: The Neglected Facilitator of Compliance

The ethical and legal conduct of organizations is the focus of compliance, as it is broadly understood, with whistleblowing considered one of its most frequently employed elements. Employees are likely to know the most about misconduct and are thus an organization’s best source of information of ethical and legal problems. Whistleblowing and its effective management is important so that organizations receive the necessary information to identify and address incidents of non-compliance in a timely manner. This chapter explores the role that effective management of whistleblowing can play in ensuring organizations comply with their legal and ethical obligations, as well as the incidence and reasons of inaction and silence by observers when misconduct exists. It also provides some preliminary findings from the Whistling While They Work 2: Improving Managerial Responses to Whistleblowing in Public and Private Sector Organizations, currently under way in Australia and New Zealand that shed light on the elements that improve whistleblowing effectiveness.