myAIPMHow to Encourage Employees to Speak Up When They See Wrongdoing
Nuala Walsh | Harvard Business Review
"Companies continue to rely on compliance tools such as codes of conduct and audits to get employees to report wrongdoing that they witness. But on their own, they are ineffective. Based on decades of behavioral science research and 30 years observing leaders, the author developed a model that offers seven interconnected strategies to nudge people to speak up.
More than 50 years after the term “bystander effect” was coined, many of us still witness workplace wrongdoing yet stay stubbornly silent. In motivating employees to speak up, most organizations still rely on traditional compliance-based tools such as codes of conduct, training, and audits. This approach has simply failed — only an estimated 1.4% of employees blow the whistle. Current strategies remain ineffective and are often counterproductive.
This matters because organizational silence perpetuates white-collar crime: It continues to rise despite companies investing millions in misconduct prevention. Scandals have slashed market valuations and ravaged the reputations of Boeing, BP, Barings, and many others.
The leading cause of silence is fear of repercussions. One study showed that 82% of whistleblowers suffered harassment, 60% lost their jobs, 17% lost homes, and 10% attempted suicide. Other causes include our unconscious need for belonging, a preference for the status quo, and willful blindness.
How can organizations motivate employees to speak up and respond to them effectively? To examine this dilemma, I conducted a randomized controlled experiment, which tested different types of messages with 923 employees. My findings point towards a blended solution to reframe current strategies — one that’s rooted in behavioral science."
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How to Encourage Employees to Speak Up When They See Wrongdoing, Nuala Walsh, Harvard Business Review, 2020