Whistle Blower Protection in Private Sector: It's Relevance in Ensuring Ethical Leadership

ABSTRACT Whistleblower protection in the private sector: its importance in ensuring ethical leadership. Whistleblower protection has always remained a public sector affair in India, with a large gap between intention and reality despite the preponderance of the private sector in the delivery of services since the economic liberalization of 1991. In the current liberalized scenario, the private sector occupies an important place in key sectors such as finance, health infrastructure, and information technology where unethical activity can produce a systemic problem for the public and the governance system. However, the existing whistle blower protection system in the private sector is patchy, voluntary, and poorly enforced-which acts as a deterrent to the employees in blowing the whistle and keeps the unethical activities under the lid. The paper on this particular topic takes the stance that the protection of whistle blowers in the private sector of the economy is an absolute necessity for ethical leadership. The following paper suggests that there is an important balance to be struck between legal protection and internal policies such as safe reporting, non-retaliation policies, and effective ethical leadership structures typical of the private sector. The following paper stresses the importance of legal protection of the whistleblower, far beyond legal formalism. Keywords: Whistleblowers, Whistle blower Protection Laws, Ethical and Moral Leadership, Private Sectors, Organisational - Ethics, Retaliation, Corporate Governance, Workplace Integrity.