11 May, 2021

Whistleblowing: the problem with speaking out

According to research, most whistleblowers raise the alarm by first approaching their boss or senior managers. However, if they then turn to regulators, it’s a clear sign that management has failed to listen.

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Last year, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority received information from 900 whistleblowers. The Care and Quality Commission received more than 7,000 disclosures from whistleblowers. Imagine someone from your organisation blowing the whistle to the regulator. What could you learn from this? That you’ve got some disloyal people in your organisation? Or that you need to encourage workers to speak up internally, instead of going to the regulator? In fact, research shows that whistleblowing most often starts with people raising their concerns with their immediate manager. They then tend to raise the issue with top management. Only then do

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Care and Quality Commission, corporate misconduct, disclosure, ethics, Financial Conduct Authority, whistleblower protection, whistleblowing, Winter 2017