Whistle-blowing and morality. Journal of Business Ethics

Each of us perceives “ethics” from our own point of reference as to what is or is not ethical. This assignment asks you to consider ethics and whistle-blowers. Select one of the behaviors listed below for your discussion posting. Base your posting on your relationship with the “unethical person” and any risk involved in “whistle blowing”.

1. Stealing from an employer

2. Falsifying a time sheet

3. Padding an expense account

4. Falsifying any document or record

5. Lying about the conduct of a co-worker

For all discussions questions a primary response of 300 word must be posted to the discussion forum, the post must be submitted by Wednesday at midnight. Each student is to post a reply to another students’ posting (minimum 200 words) and must be posted Sunday by Midnight. All late submissions will receive a zero grade. 

Requirements (please read)

For each discussion, you are required to write an initial post (300 words) and one secondary post (200 words).  The discussion forums will be worth 40 points apiece—25 points for the initial post and 15 points for the secondary post.  For your initial and secondary posts, you must have at least two academic peer-reviewed articles for references.  You must get them from the library.  There are directions at the top of our Moodle page showing how to utilize the library. 

Grading for discussions.

· All discussions must be completed on-time and must include in-text citations and references in APA style formatting. If you do not use in-text citations or they are not in APA format you will lose 3 points.  If you do not have references or if they are not in APA format, you will lose 5 points. (You do not need citations and references for secondary posts).

·  You will lose 10% based on word count if your posts are too short.  For example, your initial post is 300 words, if you have 250 words you will lose 5 points.  50 words short times 10% (50 x .10 = 5).

·  If any part of your post is copied and pasted (ANY POST), you will receive a “0”.  I will not ask you about it and you will not have a chance to resubmit the post.

Response -1 (Vidhya)

The term whistleblowing can cause an issue of interest among the social, organizational and personal spheres. In this paper, I have selected the fourth option, i.e., falsifying any document or record. As per my point of view, from my point of reference morals are determined through my moral values, and these values oversee my moral code, stand, values and my standards of wrongs and rights. Falsifying any record or document is an unethical achievement that affects the working of an entire organization and corporation. It includes modifying, altering or changing a complete document or record to mislead a person. With this point of view, I would deliberate falsifying any record or document – either through myself or through any of my classmates as morally unethical.

Falsifying of records and documents may assist in promoting some personal benefits but will detriment the complete interest of the organization with its stakeholders. This action goes beside the principles of the asset, duty (or deontological) and consequentialist ethics. According to consequentialism whether an act is wrong or right depends on the consequences of the act  (Musa & Willis, 2014). The action of falsifying records and documents will be probable to have undesirable results for the whole organization because it can lead to several losses for the organization with it goodwill. Therefore this act is obviously unethical. As per a whistleblower, it will be my obligation and duty to raise the conflict through the whistle-blowing mechanism of my corporation or an organization. This action also assists in reducing the conflicts for the organization.

In many countries, falsifying any record or document is a big mistake punishable as an offense (Professor David Ormerod, 2011).  Hence, this fault is related to the unethical individual. Whistling is an example where an organization member notifies someone else of criminal activities happening. It has also been observed that once a business or an organization is against whistleblowing, an unethical performance usually gets work. Several things or actions come under falsifying documents or records, including:

·       Misrepresenting and altering factual evidence like monetary or price amounts

·       Asserting wrong data and information when essential to offer instant statements

·       Unauthorized access of confidential data and information

·       Concealing property or assets

·       Knowingly distributing or using a fake document

References:

Musa, B. A., & Willis, J. (2014). From Twitter to Tahrir Square: Ethics in Social and New Media Communication [2 volumes]: Ethics in Social and New Media Communication . ABC-CLIO.

Professor David Ormerod, T. R. (2011). Blackstone’s Criminal Practice 2012 (book only) . OUP Oxford.

Response-2(Prachi)

Employee honesty is a difficult task that begins when an application for employment is taken. Employee-related thefts are increasing as are the cost of recovery and time to take legal actions. However, 3 factors can lead to wrong-doing:

1) level of personal integrity (life and personal experiences)

2) situational pressures (need for extra money)

3) the opportunity to commit the act (temptation).

Small, harmless “offenses” in the office are often punished only with a wink from the boss: These include, for example, the short private call at home, or even visit on Facebook during lunch break. What is tolerated and what is not, the unwritten rules are an important part of the corporate culture and vary from company to company. However, the rules governing the handling of company information and confidential data are handled much stricter: Employees in certain sectors and areas of work usually must sign a confidentiality agreement before starting work. In addition, good practice and management should prevent data and corporate secrets from being leaked out. However, if an employee violates the rules, they are in a dilemma: on the one hand, it is unpleasant to “whistle” a colleague, on the other hand, the incident must be reported to prevent further violations.

Gather substantial evidence of suspicion before you go to your supervisor. Do this as quickly and comprehensively as possible and write the case down when prompted. If the case is settled internally, one can, of course, insist on anonymity. “It’s also important that you do not tell anyone about what you are doing to others – both inside and outside the company – after you’ve reported the problem, it’s up to the company to think ahead.” What to do if there is an urgent suspicion, but there is no evidence? Without relevant evidence, you should not blame anyone and keep the incident for yourself. However, if you are sure of what you are doing, you can still address your supervisor – of course, without naming a name. If he listens carefully and promises to follow up on the matter, it’s out of your hands, and if he makes excuses and advises you to take care of your own business, you’ll have to decide whether to turn to someone else.  Basically, there are cases where it is your duty to “whistle” a colleague and those in which it is less clear who you should give your loyalty to. This decision requires diligence and sound judgment, be careful not to overreact or turn a blind eye, such situations are likely to be the hardest test of your personal, professional integrity.

References:

Feinberg, M. R. (1982). Employee stealing on the rise. Restaurant Business, 81(2), 92.

Bouville, M. (2008). Whistle-blowing and morality. Journal of Business Ethics, 81(3), 579-585.

Near, J. P., & Miceli, M. P. (2013). Organizational dissidence: The case of whistle-blowing. In Citation classics from the Journal of Business Ethics (pp. 153-172). Springer, Dordrecht.

Vandekerckhove, W. (2016). Whistleblowing and organizational social responsibility: A global assessment. Routledge.