Does Blowing the Whistle Violate Company Loyalty - Essay Example

? Does Blowing the Whistle Violate Company Loyalty? Whistle blower signifies a person who exposes anyone who is involved into wrong doing or any corruption within the organization. But historical data reveals that whistle blowers have been penalized by having stress, bad health, financially ruined, loss of career, family and friend. The present study deals in whether whistle blowing signifies loyalty of the employee towards his organization or not. Author Sissela Bok has connected blowing of whistle with professional responsibility and author Robert A. Larmer has connected whistle blowing with employee loyalty. Ideas of the two authors Philosopher Sissela Bok does not supports the act of whistle blowing within the organization. The author says that whistle blowing leads to some moral conflicts of whether to speak about the abuses and the neglects. Firstly the choice of whether the protesting against the wrong doing is in the public interest or not. In this case the whistle blower have to decide who is the abuse, the amount of threat it carries and will the protest lead to any change. Secondly the whistle blower has to compare the responsibility to serve public against to the loyalty he owes to his colleagues and the firm. . And thirdly the whistle blower may fear that his act of protest may lead to some problem to his career, his ability to support his family and himself. This conflict may override the above two other conflicts. The author also discusses about the nature of whistle blowing. By the act of whistle blowing, the whistle blower may lead to breach of loyalty, bitterness, dissent and accusation. The whistle blower makes a public disagreement with the authority or a majority view. The more repressive the authority becomes by the challenge, the more risky it becomes in speaking out. The whistle blower hopes to stop the game but his act of blowing whistle on his own team, in turn is seen as a breach to loyalty towards his own team mates. In holding the position he is meant to bind by certain obligations to his colleague and clients. But the loyalty to his clients and colleagues seems to fall weak in front of the loyalty towards the public interest. Blowing of whistle not only violets loyalty towards his colleagues but also toward the hierarchy since he may be the subordinate too. Often this alarming is joined by leaving the job. The opposing is sometimes joined by the protest which leads to public attention towards the wrong doing issue. But to be on safer side those who want to avoid retaliation may leave the organization quietly, secure his position and then blow the whistle. In this way the whistle blower will have a position to speak with the authority without being involved to any vulnerability. The whistle blowers may be effective when it gets the support of the audience. When the whistle blowers are greeted with lack of concern, the message they share drives away. When they are greeted with disbelief, they attract no response at all. And when the audience does not receive or act on the information, the message bounces back to the whistle blower and injures him. Because of all these possible harmful affects the whistle blower must first check and recheck the authenticity and accuracy of the facts and reports, before going to speak out. The whistle blower must try through the regular channels first. Therefore the author feels that the blowing of whistle is violation of loyalty (Bok, 1980, pp. 176-182). The second Author Robert A. Larmer supports the act of whistle blowing since the author thinks that this act shows the loyalty of the employee towards his organization. For the author loyalty means action involving good reasons into the interest of a person. But the question remains that what is the good reason that makes to think that it is in the interest of that person. Firstly if an action is immoral then it is not at all justified that the action is in the best interest of the agent. Indeed the author argues that an employee who blows the whistle is much more loyal than one who does not and just ignores the misconduct. One who protests is preventing his employer from being engaged into a self- destructive behavior. Secondly the author believes that it is better to settle the problem by directly dealing with the person to whom one is loyal. This implies that the employee should blow whistle internally providing an opportunity to the employers to demonstrate that nothing wrong was done or if there was really some genuine problem then it may be resolved. Thirdly loyalty requires one to be considerate more than justice. This argues that if a person is loyal to another then he will not allow that person to be immoral or unjust in his behavior. Loyal friends are not one who stays in ones trouble but also one who prevents from falling into trouble. Therefore the author says that the loyal employee is one who desires to point out the potential problem long before any drastic action with whistle blowing, but if necessary whistle blowing can be done to help the employer. The author therefore concludes that whistle blowing is an act of morality towards the employer by the employee and this does not symbolizes the act of disloyalty on the part of the employee (Larmer, 1992, pp. 187-188). Critical analysis Whistle blowing is defined as “the act of a man or woman who, believing that the public interest overrides the interest of the organization he serves, publicly ‘blows the whistle’ if the organization is involved in corrupt, illegal, fraudulent or harmful activity” (Dryburgh, 2009, p.156). The whistle blowers who speak out against the corruption, unethical and illegal activities are mostly fired and thus suffer heavily in their professional and personal life (Alford, 2007, p. 224). Therefore it can be concluded that the whistle blowers have a high risk in order to stop corruption. The two authors one supporting the act of whistle blowing and other not supporting it, has their own reasons and point of view. To Sissela Bok though it is justified at some time but still since it leads to accusation and breach of loyalty so the employees should not practice this. But on the other hand Robert A. Larmer says that it is a proof of an employee being loyal. For a whistle blower it’s not an easy decision to blow whistle since he has so many moral conflicts. The fear of not getting any support or to be in the bad books of the employer and even the fear of losing the job is always playing in his mind. But whenever he overcomes all these conflicts and blows the whistle, it is only because public interest was more important to him than any other issue. As per Larmer by blowing the whistle the employee just wants to make his employer imformed about something wrong. The employee main goal is to stop the wrong doing and to prevent the organization from carrying this corruption in future, which may lead to heavy penalty. If the points of view of both of them are considered then one can say that whistle blowing should be only done when the whistle blower has enough proof and authentic reports about the wrong doing. The employee should also see whether he will get support from others. So that he does not ends up into losing his job. Conclusion Whistle blowing is relevant to all the corporate firms. It is obvious that in every business or public there is a risk of facing something wrong. So it is the duty of the first people who realizes such thing is to protest against that (Dehn, 2001, p. 1). The whistle blowers are regarded as moral hero. But since their act may endanger their professional and personal life so many people may withdraw them from protesting. So before expecting any help the organization should incorporate policies that provide protection to the interest of the whistle blowers. If the whistle blowers are found correct then they should be rewarded. But on the other hand if they are proved wrong then they should be penalized. This step on one hand will encourage whistle blowing and on the other hand it will also prevent some from whistle blowing if they not have enough proof in their hand. After all it is the responsibility of every individual to keep their organization corruption free and promote healthy and ethical corporate culture. Reference 1. Bok, S. (1980). Whistle blowing and Professional Responsibility. Does Blowing the Whistle Violate Company Loyalty? 2. Larmer, R.A. (1992). Whistle blowing and employee loyalty. Does Blowing the Whistle Violate Company Loyalty? 3. Alford, C.F. (2007). Whistle-Blower Narratives: The Experience of Choiceless Choice. Social Research, 74(1), pp. 223- 248 4. Dryburgh, M.M. (2009). Personal and Policy Implications of Whistle-Blowing The Case of Corcoran State Prison. Public Integrity, 11(2), pp. 155-170 5. Dehn, G. (2001). Whistleblowing: A New Perspective, retrieved on January 1, 2013 from http://iacconference.org/documents/cs60a.pdf Read More