Ethics Assignment
1. Is whistle blowing violation of positive duty to the employer/organization? Under what conditions an employee can justify such violation? How exactly is the duty of loyalty owed to the employer/organization weighed against the duty to the public and larger society?
Whistle blowing may not always result in negative outcomes for the company/organization. It may also be done in order to identify the flaws present in the current organizational structure which allow people to misuse their position. And in such cases it comes out that the whistle blowing activity which was done was a positive duty to the organization. Especially for a public company whose shares are held by general public if the management is
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There are only few people benefiting from the wrong practices of the company and that is the present management because whenever it gets revealed in the public or the government cracks a whip on the company then it will lose its brand image and its products may be boycotted by people which will eventually be negative for the company in the long run. So it is in good of the company itself to take corrective measures once it has identified it.
He should not mix the two priorities. He can get some other job or occupation, etc. in a company which values honesty of an individual. But if any harm comes to any child then he won’t be able to clean a spot from his conscience. Instead he may be even be held responsible for not informing the public about it and colluding in the malpractices of the management and may get punishment which may anyway spoil his image and make him unemployable. The social status which he may lose in addition to it may even make simple living difficult for the whole family. So it is in society as well as his family’s benefit that he blows the whistle on the organisation.
3. To what extent codes of morality and favourable systemic external condition like whistle blower protection act, influence the individual’s decision and to what extent the individual’s internal motivation and character influence the individual’s decision?
Both the elements play an important role in the individual decision making
In addition, whistleblowers should be portrayed as being good in order for society to begin seeing them in a positive way. Furthermore, the government should make this type of crimes a public matter. Allowing the public to be able to see all charges and outcome regarding these cases could bring out other wrongdoings in other organizations. The government should also impose greater punishment such as jail time for these types of crimes rather than imposing fines that they are able to
Review “Just pucker and blow: An analysis of corporate whistleblowers” in Chapter 2. Please respond to the following:
During the G20 summit in Seoul 2010, the whistleblower protection law was evaluated across the countries and Australia was one of the highly rated countries with US and Canada in the public sector (Wolfe. 2014, p. 4). On the contrary, the level of whistleblower protection in the private sector is found weaker than the public sector (Wolfe. 2014, p. 4). This report critically examines the current protection regime in both public and private sectors and depicts the lives of whistleblowers after disclosing the wrongdoings of the organisation to our society. Despite the legislative requirement to establish stronger whistleblower protection law in Australia, it is not applied
You’re right Timothy. But sometimes it takes more courage for the employees to speak up about unethical conduct of their superiors. Probably because they’re afraid of being retaliated like getting fired from work or demoted. Nevertheless there are laws like Sarbanes-Oxley of 2002 and Dodd-Frank (Section 922) that would protect whistleblowers from the retaliation of their employers and even reward if the whistleblowers can provide the original information to the SEC .
The various forms of retribution that whistle-blowers endure at the hands of employers both financially and psychologically for attempting to correct mismanagement, fraud, and dishonesty are often too much for the whistle-blower to bear. Careers are in jeopardy because individuals with strong ethics decide to pursue law suits against their employers. One example is where the US Forest Service employees found their careers ruined by either demotions or loss of jobs when caught speaking out in favor of the environment or sound science, or when
Jackson and Raftos (1997) referred to whistle blowing as an avenue of last resort. Employees find themselves in these situations when the authorities at their organisations have failed to take actions on reported issues affecting that organisation. Wimot (2000) likened whistleblowing to a spectrum. At one end of this spectrum whistleblowing would only cause minimal pain and scars on the stakeholders and organisation while on the other end is the worst scenario where the whistleblowing effects are turbulent and often experienced to be negative to all those involved (ibid).
Hayley, I absolutely agree with you. Each individual must make his or her own decision as to whether the disturbing unethical offense is worth the personal cost (Reece 2014, pg 111). When I was personal faced with trying to decide to whistle blow or keep quiet and do nothing at all; I had to tell. I tried to just keep my head down and be silent but, the silence was literally making me sick. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep, and what I knew was constantly on my mind, I felt like I couldn’t function properly. The reason I was unable to function was because not being honest was not in my charter. I made the decision to be the whistleblower, and yes I did receive some back lash but for me that was better than the silence. Every individual is different,
The whistleblower him or herself must be carefully scrutinized. What are the personal and the professional reputations of the whistleblower? What is the motive driving the whistleblower? Is it to benefit the client or the organization, or is it a need for attention or revenge? Is the whistleblower's cause seen as legitimate and significant by trustworthy colleagues and friends? Is the whistleblower aware of the potential consequences of blowing the whistle and still willing to accept responsibility for actions taken?
First off, whistleblowers are by definition someone who informs on an organization involved in illicit behavior- illicit meaning forbidden by law. In Gale’s Opposing
If you are an organization, who is looking forward to define the whistle blowing policy for your company but are not sure what to do, following recommendations are just for you.
In most cases whistleblowers are internal whistleblowers, which report on misconduct that happen within the company done by fellow employee or superior. Interesting questions with respect to internal whistleblowers is, under what circumstances a person will act on to spot and to stop illegal, unacceptable behavior and report it. If there are complaint systems within the organization that offer not just option to dedicated through plan and control organization but option for absolute confidentiality then people will find a reason to take action with respect to unacceptable behavior within an organization (Rowe and Hall,
The best solution to this problem may lie between yes and no. One does have a certain moral standard to uphold. This would include blowing the whistle on a company that is hurting others because of unsafe products. This would also include the moral responsibility to provide and care for yourself and a family. A person does have a moral responsibility to both of these. One way to accomplish both would be to inform the public about the company's wrong doings, but do it anonymously so no one would know who did it. By staying anonymous, you can keep your job and still
Therefore whistle blowing has many advantages and disadvantages. There are many benefits if a member of an organization blows the whistle. Firstly it shows the employee who actually blows the whistle is a Good Samaritan and has good intentions. Also if telling superiors the truth about what is happening in the company he or she could be rewarded for coming forward. Another advantage is that it is the best thing to do, to warn others of malpractice and wrong actions from within their company. This is because then other employees would have knowledge about what type of organization they are working for and would have the chance of not being a part of it. Also if an employee does decide to blow the whistle he or she would be protected by the common law against retaliation. Even though in some cases whistle blowers tend to lose their job, in one case from the article ‘When the truth hurts’ a man named ‘Arantz’, lost his job after blowing the whistle, however his name was then cleared and was then reinstated into the police force was compensated $250,000 for wrongful dismissal.
Integrity has always been the most important quality to me throughout my life. I believe that if people are able to trust my judgment and trust my decisions, I will go a lot farther in every aspect of my life. For example, if my coworkers are able to trust my work actions I will be given more independence at work and more freedom to make decisions which will ultimately lead to a higher potential for promotion. Think about it, would you ever consider promoting a worker who you knew lied, cheated, or performed illegal acts such as fraud? I know I wouldn’t. This brings me to my next point; what would I do if I knew one of my clients was performing an illegal fraudulent act? Would I have the courage and be willing to risk my job in order to bring the truth to the foreground? Would I blow the whistle? I would like to think that I would answer a definite yes to that question but the truth is when one is in the position to either blow the whistle or not blow the whistle there are many outside forces that play into the decision. It is necessary to be reminded that in order to preserve integrity, blowing the whistle is a necessary act when deemed appropriate. In this essay I will explain what types of situations require the whistle to be blown and how to determine those situations, as well as any trends found through research between whistleblowers such as age, gender, loyalty to job, etc.
Assessing the Organization’s Internal Whistleblowing System is the last step to build a whistleblower system. Find out employees’ opinions about the organization’s culture and specifically seek employee views on the organization’s commitment to ethics and values. Four Questions should be taken into considered when assess the internal whistleblowing system: a) Does the organization have a code of conduct? b) Are employees aware of it? c) Does the company train on what is an ethical breach? d) Have there been recent breaches and how were they addressed?