PROCEDURAL JUSTICE - Ethics Resource Center

Encouraging Employee Reporting Through
PROCEDURAL JUSTICE
only 31 percent said that they would consider going outside the organization. 8 There were, therefore, a number of people
who were reluctant to accept the outcome, but who decided to stop acting on their concerns despite their reservations.
In considering the nature of the reporting process, it is important to remember that only those with a grievance or problem
turn to the hotline. People do not call to express appreciation. As with any agency that manages problems (e.g. the courts,
the police) it is impossible to resolve every problem in a way that will be satisfactory to the reporter and, in our survey,
there was often dissatisfaction with both the outcome and the procedure. However, the majority of reporters indicated that
they would neither try to appeal internally nor consider going outside the organization. So the handling of hotline reports
was successful enough that most employees kept their concerns within the company. Of course, it is also possible that
employees simply gave up. We will address this later in the report when we look at the impact of the reporting experience
on people’s relationship to their company.
8. Of course these actions are not mutually exclusive and a reporter could pursue both courses of action.
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