How do you enforce a non-retaliation policy when the CEO ignores it?
“Barclays CEO is Probed Over Bid to Unmask Whistleblower,” The Wall Street Journal, April 10, 2017 (online). CEO attempts to learn the identity of an employee who criticized the hiring of one of the CEO’s buddies. He asked his internal security folks to find out who was the author; he was rebuffed the first time (he was told it would be inappropriate), but persisted by asking them to look into it again.
Where does one start? Sounds like a law school exam question. “Analyze and discuss.”
How do you enforce a policy (or any policy) when the CEO ignores it? This time it was anti-retaliation; next time he might not hold the handrail, or violate some other company policy. What does the organization see when the CEO does this?
Here, he got a formal reprimand and will lose some bonus. How can he remain in his post? How does this discipline compare to what others have gotten for similar misconduct? Will the Board members be reelected? What message would terminating his employment send? If he violates some other policy (large or small) in the future, can the shareholders sue the directors individually for grossly negligent oversight?
Not sure how long an “A” answer would need to be.
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