Whistleblower Policy - a means to better Corporate Governance

Abstract

In today's era of globalization and technological advancement, one can easily say without doubt that corruption is one of the biggest evils plaguing our society. Corruption has become a way of life in many societies and particularly so in India. Studies have proved that GDP growth is inversely proportional to growth in corruption. Higher corruption leads to a lower GDP and vice versa. It is imperative to bring back that golden era where people were conscientious and businesses, honest and honorable. Though many systems and processes are in place, legal and otherwise to curb corruption, they have not been able to achieve the required measure of success. However a new method of curbing corruption by way of "whistle-blowing" has been able to achieve some success in controlling corruption. Whistle blowing can be defined as the act exposing wrongdoing within an organization. The whistle blower policy has rightly been recognized as one of the basic norms of corporate governance by most countries across the world. This essay deals with how whistle blowing is incorporated into corporate governance, talks about some major whistle blowing incidents and discusses about some initiatives that can be taken to enhance the effectiveness of whistle blowing.