Denúncias vazias

Uma forma de combater problemas éticos nas empresas é incentivar os canais de denúncias. Uma investigação publicada no Journal of Accounting Research envolvendo estes canais mostra que uma parcela expressiva das empresas apresenta problemas nesta comunicação: linha de telefone desligada, e-mail que não responde, endereços de site incorretos, entre outros.

In an effort to motivate firms to more rapidly detect potential misconduct, legislators, regulators, and enforcement agencies incentivize firms to have integrity or “whistleblowing” hotlines. These hotlines provide individuals an opportunity to report alleged misconduct and seek guidance about how to appropriately respond. Beyond some isolated examples, little is known about the responsiveness of hotlines to actual claims of alleged misconduct. I undertake a field study to investigate how hotlines function in practice by making four different inquiries involving alleged misconduct to nearly 250 firms. I find that one‐fifth of firms have impediments (e.g., phone line disconnected, e‐mail bounce back, direct to incorrect website) that hinder reporting and approximately ten percent of firms do not respond in a timely manner. Overall, this investigation illuminates several differences between integrity hotlines “on paper” and how they actually perform in practice.