Mary Bara In The GM Recall Controversy?

In March of 2012 Steve Parkland was hired as the new president at Charles Chocolates. He was immediately faced with numerous decisions about the future of the company. The board of directors had tasked Parkland with doubling or tripling the size of the company over the next decade, but the board and the senior management team had different opinions about the strategy that would accomplish this goal. The main issues that Parkland faced were how to increase the company’s operations while maintaining the traditional culture and support of the board.

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

Steve Rigg and Richard Caruso were two corrections officers that discovered the unethical practices in Corcoran State Prison. In spite of the risk of being terminated and other retaliation, Rigg and Caruso made a decision to come to the defense of the prisoners by becoming whistle blowers. “Whistle blowing may be defined as the attempt by an employee or former employee of an organization to disclose what he or she believes to be wrong doing in or by the organization” (Callahan, 1988, p. 315). According to Dryburgh (2009) “the motives of a whistle blower can be classified as rational, normal based or affective” (p. 158). Rigg and Caruso’s motives for becoming whistle blowers are more in accordance with normal based motives as they “encompass a desire to serve the public interest and advance social equity while preserving an individual level of loyalty to the responsibilities of the position as well as a commitment to government” (Dryburgh, 2009, p. 158). A

For many whistleblowers, fear of persecution and retaliation has prevented them from speaking out against improper behaviors at their institutions. Because of the dangers that whistleblowers are exposed to, many companies have become proactive in promoting and protecting whistleblowing. As a case and point, we need to look no further than the banking giant, Barclays.

Review “Just pucker and blow: An analysis of corporate whistleblowers” in Chapter 2. Please respond to the following:

Since the 1960s, the public value of whistle blowing has been increasingly recognized. Whistle blowing statutes protect from discharge or discrimination an employee who has initiated an investigation of an employer’s activities or who has otherwise cooperated with a regulatory agency in carrying out an inquiry or the enforcement of regulations. Many states have enacted whistle blower statutes, but these statutes vary widely in coverage. Some statutes apply only to public employees, some apply to both public and private employees, and others apply to public contractors. Under the federal False Claims Act, any person with knowledge of false claims or fraud against the institution may bring a lawsuit in his or

The 1983 film Silkwood, was inspired by Karen Silkwood of the monumental Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Nuclear Corp. (81-2159) whistleblowing case. Silkwood, a union activist and whistleblower who worked at the Cimarron, Oklahoma Kerr-McGee Nuclear Fuel Processing facility from August, 1972 through November 1974. While the activist was investigating alleged wrongdoing, specifically plutonium contaminations on her body and throughout her house, she was killed in a suspicious auto accident. The case portrayed in film shows implications for modern whistleblowers, set a precedent and was essential in creating proper protections for whistleblowers. This paper will analyze the context of Silkwood v. Kerr-McGee Nuclear Corp. in modern day whistleblowing.

advantageous information, and the abuse by the government and lack of legal protection provided to these whistleblowers.

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).

Rexrode, C & Martin, T (2014). Whistleblowers Score a Big Payday. Retrieved on June 6, 2015 from:

On Jan. 15, 2014, Mary Barra becomes the new CEO of GM and the first woman to run a major automaker. Two weeks later, the new CEO becomes aware of the ignition switch defect and starts damage control.

Throughout the hearing, CEO Mary Barra states that the mistakes of the “old GM (pre-bankruptcy)” are not the fault of the “new GM (post-bankruptcy)”, she pledges to fix the situation, starting with the new position of Vice President

Most organizations would find and fix the problems but General Motors when making decisions had committees that showed them what to do. General Motors has been overwhelmed by this issue for many years. Mary Barra fixed this philosophy and helped with this difficult process, by encouraging open communication that led to the proper actions being taken Some people didn’t agree with this plan of action but it is something that is needed to be successful and well-organized in a world that is constantly seeing

The second issue appears to be lack of person-group (PG) fit. PG fit is where employees and co-workers generally get along and has similar attributes such as education, values and supporting one another. Hence, this is not the case of PG being visible between Benton and Scoville. From the case this information has been gathered:

Whistleblowers perform in many careers and are found at all levels of an organization: scientists and secretaries, lawyers and paralegals, managers and staff, security personnel and computer specialists, etc. They are as varied in age, ethnic background, education, profession, sex, and income as the population at large.