Hong Kong bosses more likely to whistle-blow than international counterparts: study
More than a quarter of local managers have taken company issues and grievances public
Hong Kong managers are more likely to blow the whistle than their counterparts in the US and leading European countries, a study by international law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer has found.
Freshfields surveyed 2,502 middle and senior managers in Hong Kong, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and France.
It found 28 per cent of the 500 Hong Kong managers polled had blown the whistle, higher than the average 12 per cent across the five jurisdictions and much higher than the 6.2 per cent in the UK. A further 36 per cent of the Hong Kong managers said they would consider blowing the whistle.
The 64 per cent of Hong Kong managers who either had blown the whistle or would consider doing so compared with an international average of 58 per cent.
"In Europe, fewer respondents have experienced whistle-blowing than those in Asia. More than a third of French respondents and almost a quarter in Germany say they would never consider becoming a whistle-blower," said Freshfields.
In Hong Kong, the survey showed more than one in three employees would go directly to regulators, external organisations, mainstream media or social media, without raising the issue within their companies. That figure jumps to 71 per cent if people are dissatisfied with their company's response.
"Seven out of every 10 management-level employees in Hong Kong will take their concerns outside a company if they're unhappy with their company's initial response. That should place this item squarely on the boardroom agenda," said Freshfields employment partner Kathleen Healy.
More than half the managers in Hong Kong said their companies either did not have a whistle-blowing policy or if they did, it was not publicised.
"In Hong Kong we are seeing more willingness from businesses to talk about whistle-blowing, but it is a slow process and there is still a lot of complacency in the market," said Healy.
Hong Kong Freshfields global investigations partner Georgia Dawson said companies were exposing themselves to regulatory scrutiny by not prioritising whistle-blowing.
In the US, information from whistle-blowers launched an investigation that resulted in British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline paying a US$3 billion fine to the US authorities in 2012.
"You would have thought people would be very aware of whistle-blowing after the recent high-profile cases involving Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning," said Caroline Stroud, a Freshfields partner.
