Unveiling Transparency on Whistleblower Complaints: A Case Study on Infosys Limited
Geeti Mishra
Indian Institute of Management, Indore, India
Volume 18: 2023, pp. 319-330; ABSTRACT
In February 2017, Infosys Limited received complaints from whistleblowers regarding financial irregularities in its acquisition of an Israeli software company and concerns about severance packages for former executives, which eventually led to the resignation of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in August 2017. The whistleblowers also targeted the non-executive chairman of Infosys Limited, alleging that the chairman had influenced board members to bury previous wrongdoings. This situation followed a previous settlement in 2013 when Infosys paid a hefty amount to end an investigation of visa misuse. Furthermore, in September 2019, anonymous whistleblowers within Infosys accused the CEO of pressuring the finance team to manipulate financial figures thereby inflating revenue and profit margins. The continuous and frequent allegations by whistleblowers raised many questions regarding the company. This case study sheds light on whistleblowing concerns and helps to understand whether whistleblower complaints are healthy for a company. It also analyses the ethical dilemma for stakeholders when whistleblowers are frequently filing complaints.
Keywords: whistleblowing; corporate governance, wrongdoings, investigations
.jpg)
