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Trouble with Business Ethics Case Study 29th May, Trouble with Business Ethics What ethical dilemma did Wal-Mart employees Chalance Epley Lowry uncover?Chalance Epley Lowry after a through training on ethical behaviors; report to the organization that he believes that one of the senior management employees was involved in insider trading. (Employee Reported: Mona Williams, Vice President of Corporate communications)What actions did Lowry take and what were the results?Lowry was a new hired employee by the company; and during his training process he learned much about ethical behaviors and what should be the ideals adopted.
At the same time they were also asked to report any such malpractices. When Lowry joined the office he noticed one of the unethical behaviors of insider trading and he reported the same to CEO and upper management of the company. It was concluded after investigation that Lowry was wrong in her judgment and the reports about Mona Williams were falsely accused. But this lead to the exposure of Lowry herself; and she was terminated from the job and is searching for other jobs outside of Wal-Mart.
What are the dangers of whistle blowing?There are few features that makes whistle blowing a dangerous act for the employees; one of the reasons that employees are afraid to report such behaviors is that they will either lose their jobs or they would be relocated to a different and low profile post. Ethical behavior is one of the key which is taught during the training of the new employees but the credibility of the same is lost because most of the companies which are pro active in ensuring that ethical requirements are met are the companies which were involved in the same crime at one time or the other.
The whistle blowing is a tough job to perform because under law a person become liable to report a crime and if he does not report a crime he is as guiltier as the culprit himself. But to announce a crime is not the end rather it’s the means to start of an investigation and legal case and legal proving and so on. These activities take a lot of time of the individual and a lot of family life is ignored; which has even lead to worst scenarios as divorce cases. Few of the employees leave the organization to report such issues; because they are afraid that if they do while they are working they wouldn’t be able to find other suitable jobs in case they are not protected by the company.
That is why in most of the cases the ethical issues are not reported and in few the person first secures him/herself with other financial sources before going after the company who might not even take them seriously. Do you believe whistle blowing are appropriately protected?The whistle blower are not appropriately protected by the companies; if they would have given the sense of security and trust they would not have been afraid of informing to the supervisor of any suspicious activity. In Wal-Mart case the employee was not told about the complete policy details of whistle blowing which lead to confusion and unemployment of the employee.
Such instances have occurred in many other organizations as well; and the economic and peer pressures make the employees reluctant to report. So the employees are not legally or morally protect by different organizations. Bibliography Varma, Ravi. "The Affordable Care Act." 22 oct 2013. Healthcare.gov. 29 may 2014 .
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