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. First, paying bribes and siphoning off millions of dollars from the corporation would eventually lead to the company losing money because building mega projects in politically unstable countries would prove problematic. A sudden regime change would render the contracts useless, as …show more content…
Many other businesses may not want to do business as the company was involved with immoral behavior. The unethical business practices of the company will also gain exposure in the media and to the public (Nicol, 2015, n.p). Employees no longer keep unethical activities of the company to themselves. As a whistleblower, they may be perceived as a traitor, but in this case the senior executives are being traitors. They are taking money from immoral behavior and tarnishing the name of the company (Nicol, 2015, n.p). In contrast, the whistleblowers will be saving the company both from the private and public sector. Also, the company may have been blacklisted into other contracts because of the corruption (Nicol, 2015, …show more content…
I do not believe it would have a catastrophic effect on the Canadian sector. They have many buildings in Canada but many are privately owned. For instance, the Gore way Station power plant produces energy for Toyota (Wikipedia, 2015, n.p). In labelling SNC-Lavalin “too big to fail” SNC-Lavalin would continue to commit crimes as they think they are “untouchable”. They will not be accountable for their actions and this will tarnish the reputation of the Canadian government and Canadian businesses. This happened to the car companies in the United States and the financial sector. In the finance sector, CEOs still took massive bonuses while taking bailouts. This would cause civil discontent as in the protests of “Occupy Wall Street”. Not only would the government lose face with private sectors, but with the public sector as well. The governments may also lose a re-election due to the scandal and people may perceive the government as co-operating or encouraging these types of behaviors in the business and international
According to the case the problem that needs to be taken care of first is regarding Paul Bertuzzi warehouse supervisor at the Winnipeg facility. Paul on his training met two other supervisors of different locations who revealed to him a moneymaking scheme of selling the company’s latest shoe designs and production techniques to an overseas shoe manufacturer in return for part-ownership in the business. An auditor of the company discovered about scheme of two warehouse supervisors of other facilities and they were fired. Paul and an employee admitted to be aware of this scheme. This problem is very important to be solved as it is related to the company’s confidential information. The manager needs to look deeply into the problem to find out whether they actually had given any information or they just planned about this scheme. Because in case the information has been leaked the company may have to face disastrous problems as the overseas manufacturer may produce and sell the products at cheaper rates than their company, due to which they may have to plan some new ideas to solve the future problem
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.
“Too big to fail” is a theory that suggests some financial institutions are so large and so powerful that their failure would be disastrous to the local and global economy, and therefore must be assisted by the government when struggles arise. Supporters of this idea argue that there are some institutions are so important that they should be the recipients of beneficial financial and economic policies from government. On the other hand, opponents express that one of the main problems that may arise is moral hazard, where a firm that receives gains from these advantageous policies will seek to profit by it, purposely taking positions that are high-risk high-return, because they are able to leverage these risks based on their given policy. Critics see the theory as counter-productive, and that banks and financial institutions should be left to fail if their risk management is not effective. Is continually bailing out these institutions considered ethical? There are many facets that must be tak...
The Airbus Affair was one of the longest-running scandals in Canadian history (about 15 years). In 1995, Brian Mulroney was accused of collecting bribe from Karlheinz Schreiber who was a German- Canadian businessman. The allegation was made in connection to the purchase of Air-bus jets by Air Canada. The sale of the Airbuses was a contract and Boeing and Airbus were competing for it. However, the contract was won by Airbus in 1988 to supply 34 A320 planes for $1.8 billion (CBC news, 2009). What is the relationship between Brian Mulroney and Karlheinz Schreiber. What questions have been left unanswered now that the official inquiries are over?
On the study “quantitative and qualitative analyses are conducted of 33 cases of internal and external whistleblowers wrongfully fired for reporting wrongdoing” The results were “An employee's tenure in the organization likely impacts his or her choice of internal versus external channels for reporting wrongdoing. Newcomers tend to be less familiar with appropriate channels for internal reporting or effecting change (Miceli and Near, 1992, p. 117), they may identify less with the firm's goals, and they may lack knowledge of shared norms or how the corporate culture operates (Terry).” They also found “external whistleblowers have less tenure with the organization, greater evidence of wrongdoing, and they tend to be more effective in changing organizational practices
First of all, the government need to change. Chinese government is the one who lead the corruptions. As we can see, these two whistleblowers all revealed the bad things that happened because of the government. As a communism country, government is the supreme. Everyone will be proud if they work for the government. I don’t know about the other communism countries, but China is like this. If someone is working for the government, he or she will have so much power. Five years ago, before Xi Jinping became the president of China, there were more corruptions happened. Even someone little officials could get the bribe from others. The newest updated rule on March 2016 promoted people to report, offered a greater protection for the whistleblowers. Also, the whistleblowers can get rewards between 200,000 RMB to 500,000 RMB. With this activity that president Xi is proceeding, people who involved in the corruption will be on caught to the jail and the length will be based on what the person did. As a result, the phenomena of corruptions are getting fewer and fewer. However, I think there are severer corruption or unethical things happens on the top level of the government. This reminds me about a news happened a few weeks ago. A kindergarten in Beijing was reported abuse children and fed them pills. This kindergarten’s headmaster was a relative of a leader in the army, so
However, it may not be the best solution to be used first when dealing with unethical corporate practices. From more of a Utilitarian approach one should seek to do the greatest good. An approach that gives the company a chance to change its unethical behavior internally would follow this idea. Having the ability to change practices internally before outside intervention can have many positive effects. The company is able to make the changes, reestablish its integrity, maintain business, and retain employees. The whistleblowing option brings in outside forces that could lead to repercussions for the company which may include restitution or even being closed down. If the business is closed it effects more than just the corporate entity, all of the employees are also negatively impacted by this as well when they would lose their jobs. Sometimes however, when the company is unwilling to change its practices and do business in a more ethical manner people are left with little choice but to report to outside sources what is occurring within the business. Many see whistleblowing as law-breaking when employees are contractually obligated to
The major groups that were directly affected are investors, employees, and suppliers. Here we should make the distinction between different types of investors. There are two major types of investors: insiders and outside investors. Insiders are the investors who know the information that is not known publicly and may benefit them in some way. Outside investors are the investors who only know publicly known information. In our case, outside investors was the group that lost the most. On the other hand, insiders, notably Mickey Monus and David Shapiro, were the one that gains millions on IPO. The group who suffered was employees of Phar-Mor. After the scandal was revealed, most of the stores were closed to cover up losses. As a result, thousands of employees got fired. Another party that was damaged by the scandal was Coopers&Lybrant, the firm that did the audit for Phar-Mor, lost its reputation as a firm who does an audit with integrity. The secondary effect of the scandal was the overall mistrust among investors. They thought that if a giant retailer can forge its accounting books, why smaller companies wouldn’t do the same. As a result, investors became reluctant in investing into businesses that caused harm to the economy as a whole. The last but not least group that was affected by the scandal is Phar-Mor’s suppliers. Mickey Monus was fiercely fighting with them to make the chipset deals to cover up his losses, sometimes using inappropriate pressure and causing suppliers making unprofitable deals. In additions, Monus forced them to pay fees and sponsor his basketball League using buyer power of his company. In addition, a lot of bills for supplies were unpaid for months by Phar-Mor. Some suppliers said that they hated doing business with Phar-Mor, but had no choice since it had an access to vast amount of customers.
“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).
"This is why the market keeps going down every day - investors don't know who to trust," said Brett Trueman, an accounting professor from the University of California-Berkeley's Haas School of Business. As these things come out, it just continues to build up"(CBS MarketWatch, Hancock). The memories of the Frauds at Enron and WorldCom still haunt many investors. There have been many accounting scandals in the United States history. The Enron and the WorldCom accounting fraud affected thousands of people and it caused many changes in the rules and regulation of the corporate world. There are many similarities and differences between the two scandals and many rules and regulations have been created in order to prevent frauds like these. Enron Scandal occurred before WorldCom and despite the devastating affect of the Enron Scandal, new rules and regulations were not created in time to prevent the WorldCom Scandal. Accounting scandals like these has changed the corporate world in many ways and people are more cautious about investing because their faith had been shaken by the devastating effects of these scandals. People lost everything they had and all their life-savings. When looking at the accounting scandals in depth, it is unbelievable how much to the extent the accounting standards were broken.
The runaway corruption in the country harms the business environment and causes collapse of various established institutions and industries.
Although Hollate introduced a compliance program and code of conduct when it went public, the programs were put on “the back burner”. This outcome is not surprised for that the company does not pay attention to the programs. It is, therefore, important to “reinforce the values” and “employee a boundary system when actions are inconsistent with the code of conduct” for the purpose of early detection. Tyco provides a good example after its scandal, by initiating “mandatory annual compliance training for all its employees worldwide” and creating the Tyco Guide to Ethical Conduct to familiarize employees with company expectations and help them make ethical decisions. As tips is the most useful method for internal and external sources to detect frauds, the whistleblower hotline should be well communicated with encouragement on reporting any suspicious activity. In addition, to improve the effectiveness of the compliance program and code of conducts, Hollate should implement management monitoring and evaluation on a regular
By 2001 the telecommunications market was softening; meaning prices were falling due to an excess of supply and a decrease in demand as the dot com boom ended. WorldCom had already signed contracts with third party telecommunication companies promising to complete their calls. These multi billion dollar contracts were actually costing more in expenses than what the company would or was receiving in revenue (Sandberg, Solomon, & Blumenstein, 2002).
This paper will examine the sensational highlight of the famous whistleblower Edward Snowden who has sent a massive shockwave around the world after exposing National Security Agency (NSA) global surveillance program which is known as PRISM which is used by the US government and private agency to monitor and record user’s activity on the internet not only on US citizen but around the world. This essay will examine the case studies of Edward Snowden and a will apply a set of comprehensive ethical methodology by Liffick top-down approach in investigating ethical scenario as follows: list participants and their action, reduce list through simplifying assumptions, legal considerations, list possible options of the participants, list
Morality is the biggest and best reason for this act because people generally want to do the good moral thing. If a person should have to blow the whistle on a company they should know that for every action there is a reaction, and the reaction of whistle blowing might lead to getting fired. One of the most controversial types of whistle blowing is that of impersonal. If a company is making products that are unsafe because they are trying to save a few dollars, an employee could see this as immoral and tell the public about it. The whistle blower would do this based on Kant's theory. It would be following the moral law to do so. If a company is cutting corners and hurting others, it would be morally unacceptable not to blow the whistle on this company. To knowingly let innocent people get hurt because of something that you could have stopped is morally wrong. A lot of people would blow the whistle on a company that is making unsafe products, but not all. A number of people would not inform the public of the company's wrongdoings. They would not do it out of fear that they might loose there job or even be blacklisted from the industry altogether. If they are not fired they will most likely be outcasts at their job and looked over at promotion time.