Normative Theories on Ethics on Whistle-Blowing
Normative theory and whistle-blowing
Introduction
Whistle-blowing in this context is the act, for an employee, disclosing what he believes to be an unethical or illegal behaviour to higher management (internal whistle-blowing) or to an external authority or the public (external whistle-blowing). Examples of unethical acts include sexual harassment and racial discrimination at work while illegal act include the accounting fraud by the Arthur-Andersen accountants for Enron (Sims & Brinkmann 2003).
Whistle-blowing is a controversial issue whereby the duties of employees towards the society, organization and self are often in a conflict of interest. Whistle-blowing is a moral obligation towards professionalism and the interest of the public (Bouville 2008).While at the same time, whistleblowing though being a duty towards professional ends and morals to protect the public, constitutes a violation of duty to one 's employer (Larmer 1992).
In the United States, a study done from 1994–2005 employee willingness to report wrongdoings in 2005 a mere 55% in general, reason being that many employees are hesitant to report their findings of ethical misconduct. Of which 59% believed no corrective action would be taken, 46% fear retaliation, 39% fear anonymity, 24% assumed someone else would report it and 18% did not know who to contact (Ethics Research Centre, 2005). The most recent report in 2011 shows this percentage having increased to 70% willingness to report wrongdoings since. Of which the highest proportion goes to simple acts of theft of company resources (70%) and lowest to whistleblowing employee conducting personal business affairs during company time (34%) (Ethics Research Centre, 2011).
In Turkey, according to a study by Nayir & Herzi (2012) of 327 turkish managers working at different levels in private businesses in the summer of 2009 show that anonymous-external whistleblowing is the preferred choice of whistleblowing as the whistle-blower
Introduction
Whistle-blowing in this context is the act, for an employee, disclosing what he believes to be an unethical or illegal behaviour to higher management (internal whistle-blowing) or to an external authority or the public (external whistle-blowing). Examples of unethical acts include sexual harassment and racial discrimination at work while illegal act include the accounting fraud by the Arthur-Andersen accountants for Enron (Sims & Brinkmann 2003).
Whistle-blowing is a controversial issue whereby the duties of employees towards the society, organization and self are often in a conflict of interest. Whistle-blowing is a moral obligation towards professionalism and the interest of the public (Bouville 2008).While at the same time, whistleblowing though being a duty towards professional ends and morals to protect the public, constitutes a violation of duty to one 's employer (Larmer 1992).
In the United States, a study done from 1994–2005 employee willingness to report wrongdoings in 2005 a mere 55% in general, reason being that many employees are hesitant to report their findings of ethical misconduct. Of which 59% believed no corrective action would be taken, 46% fear retaliation, 39% fear anonymity, 24% assumed someone else would report it and 18% did not know who to contact (Ethics Research Centre, 2005). The most recent report in 2011 shows this percentage having increased to 70% willingness to report wrongdoings since. Of which the highest proportion goes to simple acts of theft of company resources (70%) and lowest to whistleblowing employee conducting personal business affairs during company time (34%) (Ethics Research Centre, 2011).
In Turkey, according to a study by Nayir & Herzi (2012) of 327 turkish managers working at different levels in private businesses in the summer of 2009 show that anonymous-external whistleblowing is the preferred choice of whistleblowing as the whistle-blower
References: Ethics Resource Centre, How Employees View Ethics in their Organizations 1994 – 2005, Washington D.C., Ethics Resource Centre, 2005 viewed 1st February 2013, <http://www.ethics.org/files/u5/2005NBESsummary.pdf>. Qusqas, F & Kleiner, B, 2001, The difficulties of whistleblowers finding employment. Management Research News, vol. 24, issue3/4, pp. 97–99. Trevino, LK & Nelson KA, 2010, Managing business ethics: straight talk about how to do it right, 4th edition, Hoboken, John Wiley & Sons.