One often assumes that if someone has concerns about wrongdoing
in the workplace, they will voice them. In reality this isn't
always the case. The results of recent studies by the Institute of
Business Ethics (IBE) and the Ethics & Compliance Initiative (ECI)
suggest that on average 43% of respondents from the EU had
witnessed, but not reported, wrongdoing. There are myriad reasons
for this and often themes can be identified within each country due
to their history and culture which have created a bias against the
practice.
There has been a notable shift in recent years around the idea
of speaking up but it takes time to bed in. The UK is taking the
lead in the EU, its 'non-reporting' rate is lower than the
rest of the continent, and countries such as Germany use the
English term 'whistleblower' as there is no formal German
word. However, even in the UK the term whistleblower can have
negative connotations and 'speaking-up' is used in its
place.
