The Business Ethics Twin-Track: Combining Controls and Culture to Minimise Reputational Risk

Chapter NineWhistle-blowing: encouraging a culture of openness

CREATING AN OPEN CULTURE: EIGHTH WORKSHOP

Opening

It is just before 9.00 am and the team has gathered in the boardroom of the Stronach Group for this, the eighth and final workshop in the series on the ethics project. We are just about to start. Unusually, Rachel had called me a couple of days ago to tell me a little about how whistle-blowing is handled at Stronach – the general topic for discussion at today's workshop. She seemed a little concerned, embarrassed almost.

This is what she told me.

Update

Like many organisations today, the Stronach Group does indeed have a whistle-blowing hotline in place. It was introduced five years ago, together with a whistle-blowing policy and a piece of training for managers and staff. However, nothing has been done since that time to update the policy or to re-visit the training. Rachel is concerned that the hotline is not operating effectively – there are no metrics in place, the internal audit function has apparently never looked at the workings of the hotline and the board receives no regular reports. She feels that Stronach is simply going through the motions here, that this is a tick-box exercise and she does not like it.

She has spoken with Malcolm Mainwaring, the Group Finance Director, about her concerns – he has been with the Group much longer than her. Malcolm told her that he remembers hearing something about a couple of calls that came through on the hotline a ...