Artize L. Johnson
Professor: Steve Harris
LEG 500
Law, Ethics, & Corporate Governance
26 April 2015
According to Halbert, Ingulli, & Frey (2015), whistleblowers are people who decide to report unethical or illegal activities, usually activities under the control of their employers. They may be working for private companies, nonprofit organizations, or for the government. A whistleblower is an individual working in an organization who decides to expose the misconduct, misbehavior, or illegal actions occurring in that organization. Making the decision to expose these actions can be very difficult to disclose with the fear of repercussion. The information being disclosed to supervisors or the media can either be inside or outside their organization. There are a number of organization or groups out there that are concerned with issues in organization and when a whistleblower is exposing corruption, those groups make themselves available for the whistleblower to make their allegations.
Usually when whistleblowers are exposing corruption they are speaking out to expose the dangers that may be happening to the public or with the environment. Most often the alleged misconduct being exposed by the whistleblower is violation of the laws and regulations. There has also been some reports of misconduct be exposed for the health and safety violations, and fraud.
Key Characteristics of a Whistleblower
A Whistleblower is honest and fearless; he or she has to be courageous and brave enough to expose misconduct. Tenacity and a fighting spirit is a requirement because whistleblowing can be a long a drawn out process and a difficult road to bear. The individual has to be determined to go all the way no matter the consequences. We mention that a whistleblower must have tenacity, reasoning for the characteristics is because they will be under public scrutiny, co-workers will avoid them, and before and justice is
References: Halbert, T., Ingulli, E., & Frey, M. A. (2015). Law and ethics in the business environment with readings from essentials of contract law. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning. Marshall, D.J., & Williams, N.J. (2007). Blowing the whistle on accounting fraud: the Sarbanes-oxley whistleblower protections act at a glance. A White Paper for Finance Professionals. Katz, Marshall & Banks LLP. Retrieved on April 22, 2015 from http://www.cfo.com/media/pdf/SOX%20Whistleblower%20White%20Paper_KMB.pdf Stempel, J. (2014). Jpmorgan whistleblower gets $63.9 million in mortgage fraud deal. Retrieved on April 22, 2015 from http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/07/us-jpmorgan-whistleblower-idUSBREA261HM20140307