Whistleblowing policy is just a starting point for a company

In addition to various implementation issues, whether such an approach is likely to be effective depends on a number of other factors, the most important of which is the firm's corporate culture.

Published Wed, Mar 18, 2020 · 09:50 PM

ABOUT two years ago, as I was writing a case study about a large Singapore company which had been in the news for a major bribery scandal a few months earlier, I looked up its website and found that its whistleblowing policy provided three options for employees and others to make reports. They could send an email to the company, using a dedicated company email address. They could also click on a link to complete a form and submit. Or they could call one of the numbers in the different countries listed.

I decided to call the Singapore number from my home phone on a Saturday night. I wanted to see if there was actually someone manning the hotline on…