Whistleblowing processes are vital to achieving integrity, good governance and freedom from corruption in organisations across the world. The research project Whistling While They Work 2: Improving managerial responses to whistleblowing in public and private sector organisations sheds new light on:
•Strengths and weaknesses in organisational responses to whistleblowing;
•The impacts and outcomes by which to judge organisational responses; and
•The most important factors explaining why better or worse responses are occurring.
This research compared the experiences of over 17,000 of people involved in whistleblowing. The report Clean as a Whistle: a five step guide to better whistleblowing policy and practice in business and government presents the key findings of the research.
https://www.prsb.vic.gov.au/clean-as-a-whistle-5-steps-to-better-whistleblowing-policy
https://www.prsb.vic.gov.au/reviews/review-decisions/review-division-46
PRSB Professional Standards Division hosted an online workshop with Professor Wim Vandekerckhove focusing on whistle blowing.
This evidence based conversation answers the following questions:
What does trust mean concretely for speaking up?
Who needs to trust whom? And to do or be what exactly?
How can we establish trust for people to speak up?
What evidence do we have about what works and what guidance is available?
https://www.prsb.vic.gov.au/speaking-up-and-listening-up
Professor Wim Vandekerckhove holds a PhD from Ghent University. Before joining EDHEC, he held a lecturer post at Ghent University (Belgium), visiting scholarships at the University of Oslo (Norway), Griffith University (Australia), the International Anti-Corruption Academy (Austria), and was Professor of Business Ethics at the University of Greenwich (UK). He is an expert in whistleblowing and organisational trust.
https://www.prsb.vic.gov.au/speaking-up-and-listening-up-two-sides-of-trust
All organizations understand the value of feedback. But only some encourage opinions both positive and negative and lend an ear to self-styled “devil’s advocates.” Employees who make concerns known help organizations thrive by identifying issues and providing opportunities to adapt, innovate, and avoid costly mistakes.
This is especially true for ethical behaviors. Employees who speak up when they observe misconduct help organizations reduce risk. The sooner they speak up, the sooner the organization can take action to prevent potential issues from developing into major scandals and damaging headlines.
https://www.prsb.vic.gov.au/how-to-create-a-speak-up-culture
The impact that ethics teaching has seems marginal at best and can even backfire. People attend ethics training and pass assessments, but does behaviour change as a result? Too often the answer is "no".
In this short video Mary Gentile, Creator/Director of Giving Voice to Values discusses why many so many approaches to ethics education backfire, and presents other ways to approach ethical behaviour change that can be more effective.
https://www.prsb.vic.gov.au/why-does-ethics-education-fail
New research suggests the link between doing the right thing and "sleeping well" is no mere metaphor. By causing distress and rumination, unethical behavior can lead to insomnia. The researchers found that when people engaged in unethical behaviors, they felt they had lowered their own moral standing. As a result, they experienced negative feelings about themselves, including guilt and shame. This meant that as evening came, they could not unplug from work. They began to ruminate, revisiting their own distressing behaviors. Unable to relax, they could not get to sleep quickly.
However, not everyone lost sleep to the same degree. It also mattered whether the individual engaging in the counterproductive behaviors saw himself or herself as a moral person. Those who saw themselves as caring, compassionate, fair, and honest were affected the most. But those participants who did not see these and similar traits as a core part of who they are did not experience the same outcome.
https://www.prsb.vic.gov.au/can-behaving-ethically-help-you-sleep-well-at-night
https://www.prsb.vic.gov.au/reviews/review-decisions/review-division-45
We have all heard the phrase "power corrupts", and research backs the idea that power does tend to corrupt. But is this the only possible outcome? Does power have to corrupt? Not always. In fact, recent research suggests that we can change the way power affects us in order to help others and ourselves. While researchers find that power comes with temptations, they also affirm that power only “tends to corrupt”.
https://www.prsb.vic.gov.au/four-ways-to-use-your-power-ethically
Do you know how ethical you are? Most people overestimate their own ethical behaviour, and have large blind spots about things that can influence their own ethical decision making. How can we challenge our flawed self perception and make better ethical decisions?
https://www.prsb.vic.gov.au/where-are-the-edges-of-your-ethics