Whistle Blowing and Social Responsibility

Last updated on November 27th, 2019 at 10:37 pm

Whistle Blowing

Definition: When a former or the existing employee of the organization raise his voice against the unethical activities being carried out within the organization is called as whistle blowing and the person who raise his voice is called as a whistle blower.

The misconduct can be in the form of fraud, corruption, violation of company rules and policies, all done to impose a threat to public interest. The whistle blowing is done to safeguard the interest of the society and the general public for whom the organization is functioning.

The companies should motivate their employees to raise an alarm in case they find any violation of rules and procedures and do intimate about any possible harm to the interest of the organization and the society.

Types of Whistle Blowing

1. Internal Whistle Blowing:An employee informs about the misconduct to his officers or seniors holding positions in the same organization.
2. External Whistle Blowing:Here, the employee informs about the misconduct to any third person who is not a member of an organization, such as a lawyer or any other legal body.

Most often, the employees fear to raise a voice against the illegal activity being carried out in the organization because of following reasons:

• Threat to life
• Lost jobs and careers
• Lost friendships
• Resentment among workers
• Breach of trust and loyalty

Thus, in order to provide protection to the whistle blowers, the Whistle Blower Protection Bill is passed in 2011 by Lok Sabha.

Now, the question comes in the mind that which offenses are considered valid for whistle blowing and for which the protection is offered by the law. Following are the acts for which the voice can be raised and are law protected:

1. Fraud
2. Health and safety in danger
3. Damage to the environment
4. Violation of company laws
5. Embezzlement of funds
6. Breach of law and justice

Social Responsibility

CSR is corporate social responsibility and that is the responsibility of organizations to act in ways that protect ad improve the welfare of multiple stakeholders. A key word in this definition is “stakeholder” where that is any group within or outside the organization that is directly affected by the organization and has a stake in it’s performance. Stakeholders can be customers, organization members, owners, other organizations that work with them, competitors, community members, financial investors, any anyone else who would be effected by the organization’s actions. This means a lot considering how the difference between a company that considers all stakeholders and a company that considers only shareholders can heavily influence a company to be more or less socially responsible.