Abstract
M.A.
Fraud and corruption as well as other forms of organizational wrongdoing has become a serious problem in South Africa. If employees become aware of the fact that a superior is involved in some form of wrongdoing they find themselves in a dilemma. If they report the transgression without being authorized to do so, they face the possibility of being victimized within the organization. The unauthorized disclosure of information about organizational wrongdoing by an employee has become known as whistleblowing.
Whistleblowing could have positive consequences for the organization, as it provides the possibility that organizational misconduct could be exposed and dealt with. However, the unauthorized nature of the exposure often results in the organization focussing its attention on the messenger rather than the message. As a consequence the whistleblower is often ostracized until he or she leaves the organization voluntarily or is forced out, while the misconduct is ignored or even covered up in a misguided attempt to protect the organization’s reputation. The act of whistleblowing therefore often has a very detrimental effect on the individual whistleblower’s career, family relationships and self-image.
Apart from the possible negative consequences faced by the individual when engaging in whistleblowing, the organization within which the whistleblowing occurs can also be negatively affected. Individual employees are their best form of detection when something is wrong within the organization. However, if the whistleblower is victimized and leaves the organization, it means that the organization loses a valuable employee and that the misconduct will continue. Furthermore, in future when employees become aware of some form of dishonesty they will tend to turn a blind eye rather than report the important information.
Financial institutions and in particular banks, are particularly vulnerable to the possibility of fraud and corruption or other forms of misconduct occurring. Rather than focussing on the experiences of the whistleblower, this study investigated the views of managers at a commercial bank with regard to the nature and ways of managing whistleblowing in the organization.
Senior managers were interviewed during the course of this study and three issues came to the fore. Firstly, the managers generally showed very little understanding with regard to the nature and implications of whistleblowing for the organization. Secondly, the organizational culture seems to concentrate mainly on creating an environment that is conducive to protecting the stakeholders’ interests than allowing reporting of wrongdoing to take place. Thirdly, there does not seem to be any effective mechanisms in place that could facilitate the disclosure of organizational misconduct in such a manner that it would result in a beneficial outcome for both the individual disclosing the information and the organization.
The study concludes by making some recommendations with regard to ways in which a culture of ethics can be created in an organization. This would entail instituting mechanisms of confidential reporting, which would promote the authorized disclosure of organizational misconduct and therefore pre-empt the necessity of blowing the whistle.
Prof. J.M. Uys