Question

Company X has a good whistle-blowing program in place. Sara used the whistle-blowing system to alert the management about a fraud being committed by a senior employee in the human resource department. The company investigated the allegation and punished the fraudster. However, Sara was shocked to find later that everyone in her team knew that she was the one who blew the whistle. What could be a major issue with the program at the company?
a. Lack of awareness about the program
b. Lack of adherence to anonymity policies
c. Unclear policies regarding whistle blowing
d. Management inaction regarding anonymity policies

Answer 1

Answer:

b. lack of adherence to anonymity policies

Explanation:

An act of whistle-blowing refers to revealing a suspected fraud, misconducts or any non appropriate action or non compliance with established norms.

Whistle- blower refers to the person who chooses to make such a disclosure. Under the act, whistle-blower identity needs to be preserved by the company in question and the person cannot be oppressed by any other employee or senior management officials.

Under Whistle - Blower Protection Act, whistle blowers are protected from any sort of retaliation by their employer upon disclosure of any suspected fraud or misconduct.

In the given case, the identity of Sara as a whistle blower was not protected.

Anonymity refers to an anonymous person in the sense that the name of the whistle blower is not disclosed. The given case points out lack of compliance or adherence to the anonymity policies as Sara's name was revealed by the management.