Before Doing Your Own Workplace Investigation—a Cautionary Tale
A few years ago, a friend of mine was part of an organization that received complaints about one of its leaders, which led to questions about whether the leader should be fired . The organization debated internally about what to do, and after sitting on the allegations for months, management initiated its own investigation with the help of some inexperienced consultants. The results were disastrous, and the organization eventually ended up retaining a law firm to redo the investigation . In fact, the internal backlash from the original investigation was so strong that the organization had to commission a third investigation into why the original investigation went so poorly . In the end, the debacle dragged out so long that nobody felt like they had gotten a fair shake. Years after the organization first learned the allegations, it was still trying to recover from the fallout of the bungled operation. As you consider the place internal investigations have in your orga...