Boardroom Diversity and Whistleblowing Disclosure: Empirical Evidence from Malaysia’s Top 100 Publicly Listed Companies

The disclosure of whistleblowing policies is a critical component of effective corporate governance. High standards of whistleblowing policy disclosure signal a company’s commitment to safeguarding stakeholder interests. This research aims to analyze the relationship between board composition and whistleblowing policy disclosure in the top 100 Malaysian publicly listed companies. Specifically, the study investigates whether board independence, board size, the frequency of board meetings, and board gender diversity affect the level of whistleblowing policy disclosure. The relationships between these board characteristics and whistleblowing policy disclosure are analyzed using an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression model. The findings reveal that board independence and gender diversity are significantly and positively associated with whistleblowing policy disclosure. However, board size and frequency of the board meetings do not exhibit significant relationships with whistleblowing policy disclosure. This study has contributed to the existing literature by extending the principal-principal conflict theory to the context of whistleblowing policy disclosure, offering new insights into the governance mechanisms that drive transparency in corporate reporting.