Protecting Whistleblowers: The Effectiveness of Legislation

This paper discusses legislation aimed at the protection of whistleblowers as well as the implementation of confidential reporting processes by organizations.  Confidential reporting processes are generally considered important ways in which to encourage employees to disclose ethical and legal violations to an internal authority.  If these processes are effective, action can be taken immediately to resolve the problem and to minimize the organization’s exposure to reputational damage.  In so doing the organization makes employees aware that the organization is serious about adherence to codes of conduct.  In this paper, legislation in various countries is compared in order to determine ways in which the effectiveness of legislative protection for whistleblowers can be enhanced.