Whistleblowing

1770 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Whistleblowing and its effects

Sharon Watkins earned her 15 minutes of fame the honest way, as the Enron employee who blew the lid off of then CEO Ken Lay's debauchery. But for every celebrated whistleblower, there are hundreds who remain in the shadows. And for good Samaritans who do tell their tale, the price they pay can be exorbitant.

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.

Whistleblowing is a relatively recent entry into the vocabulary of politics and public affairs, although the type of behavior to which it refers is not wholly new. How is it defined? Whistleblowing refers to a warning issued by a member or former member of an organization to the public about a serious wrongdoing or danger created or concealed within the organization. In a genuine case of whistleblowing, the whistleblower would have to have unsuccessfully utilized all appropriate channels within the organization to right a wrong. Many view whistleblowing as an external action to an unresponsive organization and reporting more as an internal process, done through organizational channels. I believe one would have to

unsuccessfully exhaust all the internal channels of communication before "going public." ...

... middle of paper ...

...rity and destroys the personal and professional lives of the whistleblower.

They perform a selfless and valuable service for society. They strive to protect our government, enforce its enacted laws, and promote society's stated ethics. This is all done at great risk to themselves, their careers, and their loved ones. Without their acts of courage, our world would be a more dangerous, deceitful and difficult place.

References

The World Of Whistleblowers: Are They Sinners Or Saints? by Jacqueline P. Taylor, Esq.

Whistle Blower Protection by John Steven Niznik

Whistleblower from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Watergate Scandal from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Show More
Related

  • The Enron Implosion and the Loss of Respect for the Accounting Profession

    5463 Words  | 11 Pages

    ... excellence stand in satirical contrast to allegations now being made public. Personally, I had referred several of our best and brightest accounting, finance and MBA graduates to Enron, hoping they could gain valuable experience from seeing things done right. These included a very bright training consultant who had lost her job in 2000 with a Houston consulting firm as a result of a reduction in force. She has lost her second job in 18 months through no fault of her own. Other former students still hanging on at Enron face an uncertain future as the company fights for survival.

    Read More

  • Corruption In The Case Of NYPD Narcotics Detective Frank Serpico

    957 Words  | 2 Pages

    Corruption is a persistent problem that plagues the world and it knows no boundaries. Transparency International defines it as the “abuse of entrusted power for private gain” (2013). For the purposes of this thread, ‘corruption’ is defined as any individual, collective, or structural act or process that permits the use of public authority or position for private gain. This definition captures the broad and many ways individuals and institutions abuse power and the public trust. In regard to whistleblowing, much conflict stems from the context in which the whistleblower is viewed.

    Read More

  • Whistleblowing in The Medical Community

    1325 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bouville (2008) describes whistleblowing as an act for an employee of revealing what he believes to be unethical or described as an illegal behaviour to a higher management (internal whistleblowing) or to an external authority or the public (external whistleblowing). Whistle-blowers are often seen as traitors to an organisation as they are considered to have violated the loyalty terms of that organisation while some are described as heroes that defend the values and ethics of humanity rather than loyalty to their company. In the medical community, it is the duty of a practitioner aware of patient care being threatened to make it known to those in charge and for those in charge to address the issues and act on it. The General Medical Council (GMC) stipulated this act of raising concern as a doctor’s duty in its Good medical practice guide. This paper will be based on the analysis of the experience of whistle blowers, reasons why they chose or chose not to take such actions and personal opinions on whistleblowing in the medical community.

    Read More

  • Thethical Ethical Issue Of Whistleblowing In The Workplace

    1141 Words  | 3 Pages

    Whistle blowing is a controversial topic in the professional industry. Whistle blowing is the act of speaking out against a fellow colleague or even a friend that has done something non-ethical or illegal in the workplace. A whistleblower raises concerns about the wrongdoing inside of the workplace. Employees hesitate to become a whistleblower because of the idea of becoming a snitch on fellow employees and having a bad rep around the office. This concern was lowered in 1989 with a law called the Whistleblower Protection Act that protects federal government employees in the United States from retaliatory action for voluntarily disclosing information about dishonest or illegal activities occurring at a government organization (whistleblowers.gov).

    Read More

  • Narrative Essay About Veterans

    532 Words  | 2 Pages

    They have given America an elite example of how to defend ourselves and keep each other safe. They have shown our nation how to achieve freedom. The future generations will look at the history that they have made and use it as their guide to keep our country on top. Now, it is the next generation’s job to make a strong future.

    Read More

  • Unveiling Whistleblowers: Protecting Public from Wrongdoings

    1249 Words  | 3 Pages

    The term Whistleblower means “An employee who discloses information that s/he reasonably believes is evidence of illegality, gross waste or fraud, mismanagement, abuse of power, general wrongdoing, or a substantial and specific danger to public health and safety. When information is classified or otherwise restricted by Congress or Executive Order, disclosures only are protected as whistleblowing if made through designated, secure channels. (What is a Whistleblower?)” The idea behind whistleblowers is that they believe trying to inform the public of illegal acts within their businesses has the potential to protect the public from wrongdoing. The following studies analyze scholar’s findings on different factors related to whistle blowing as

    Read More

  • Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room

    1884 Words  | 4 Pages

    The three main crooks Chairman Ken Lay, CEO Jeff Skilling, and CFO Andrew Fastow, are as off the rack as they come. Fastow was skimming from Enron by ripping off the con artists who showed him how to steal, by hiding Enron debt in dummy corporations, and getting rich off of it. Opportunity theory is ever present because since this scam was done once without penalty, it was done plenty of more times with ease. Skilling however, was the typical amoral nerd, with delusions of grandeur, who wanted to mess around with others because he was ridiculed as a kid, implementing an absurd rank and yank policy that led to employees grading each other, with the lowest graded people being fired. Structural humiliation played a direct role in shaping Skilling's thoughts and future actions. This did not mean the worst employees were fired, only the least popular, or those who were not afraid to tell the truth. Thus, the corrupt culture of Enron was born. At one point, in an inter...

    Read More

  • Is SNC-Lavalin's Whistleblowing Justified?

    1495 Words  | 3 Pages

    With the emergence of unethical practices found in international corporations, whistleblowing has been more and more common. A whistleblower is a person who exposes any kind of information that is deemed illegal, immoral, or dishonest. In SNC-Lavalin, the whistleblower was justified. In this case, the senior executives were paying bribes and taking money from mega projects won under the Gadhafi regime (Wikipedia, 2015, n.p). There are several issues in this case.

    Read More

  • Whistleblowing Essay

    1451 Words  | 3 Pages

    On November 29th, Mary Inman gave us a talk on the topic whistleblowing, which let me know more about the whistleblower activities and the whistleblower protection. According to the definition given by the website whistleblowers international, whistleblowing is someone who reveal the unethical or illegal activities within the company. The person can be current or past employee, or an outside individual who is familiar with the unethical activity. This whistleblower does not need to be U.S. citizen.

    Read More

  • Examples Of Pressure In Fahrenheit 451

    537 Words  | 2 Pages

    First I will be telling you about the pressure of being a “whistleblower”. In Fahrenheit 451 the pressure of being a “whistleblower” is so real, everyone is told to rat out everyone who has a book in their household, if they find out they have a book in the home it is burned to the ground. This is related to our society because we are pressured to do what is right, and part of my belief system is to do what is right and to point out what is wrong. For example if someone were to gossip behind their back I would try to stand up and tell them it is wrong and tell the person what the others said

    Read More

  • A Corporate Code of Ethics is Not Enough

    2353 Words  | 5 Pages

    Flynt, Sean. “Enron Whistleblower Tells Chilling Tale of Corporate Ruin.” Samford University. Ed. Donna Fitch. 19 Feb. 2004. 3 Mar. 2005.

    Read More

  • Whistleblowing Essay

    865 Words  | 2 Pages

    “Faced with what is right, to leave it undone shows a lack of courage” (Confucius Quotes, 2012). The person who does her duty, at great risk to her own interest, when most others would defy from fear is considered a hero (Schafer, 2004). Dr. Nancy Olivieri is a hero who blew the whistle on Apotex, University of Toronto (U of T) and the Hospital for Sick Children (HSC); and fought for her academic rights till the end. Whistle-blowing refers to actions of an employee that breach her loyalty to the organization but serves the public interest. When other constraints proved to be ineffective, whistle-blowing acts as a check on authority of the organization. Whistle-blowers expose severe forms of corruption, waste, and abuse of power within their organization and put the organization in a position where it is answerable to the public, thus enhancing its accountability (Cooper, 2006, pg. 198-205).

    Read More

  • The Federal Civil Service System

    756 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...y. Congress has passed laws to protect whistleblowers because they protect the accountability of the government and private companies by sharing the truth of their actions. Although there have been laws to protect whistle blowers many still are receiving punishment from corporations today.

    Read More

  • The Enron Corporation Case Study

    1339 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Enron Corporation was an American energy company that provided natural gas, electricity, and communications to its customers both wholesale and retail globally and in the northwestern United States (Ferrell, et al, 2013). Top executives, prestigious law firms, trusted accounting firms, the largest banks in the finance industry, the board of directors, and other high powered people, all played a part in the biggest most popular scandal that shook the faith of the American people in big business and the stock market with the demise of one of the top Fortune 500 companies that made billions of dollars through illegal and unethical gains (Ferrell, et al, 2013). Many shareholders, employees, and investors lost their entire life savings, investments,

    Read More

  • Whistleblowing

    1148 Words  | 3 Pages

    Whistle blowing is an attempt of an employee or former employee of a company to reveal what he or she believes to be a wrongdoing in or by a company or organization. Whistle blowing tries to make others aware of practices that are considered illegal or immoral. If the wrongdoing is reported to someone in the company it is said to be internal. Internal whistle blowing tends to do less damage to the company. There is also external whistle blowing. This is where the wrongdoing is reported to the media and brought to the attention of the public. This type of whistle blowing tends to affect the company in a negative way because of bad publicity. It is said that whistle blowing is personal if the wrongdoing affects the whistle blower alone (like sexual harassment), and said to be impersonal if the wrongdoing affects other people. Many people whistle blow for two main reasons: morality and revenge.

    Read More

More about Whistleblowing

Open Document