Whistle Blowing
Question 1: The Singapore Code of CG advocates the disclosure of company whistle-blowing practices and procedures. Should employees have a duty to blow the whistle on unethical or illegal acts?
Before we proceed into the essay question, we need to ask ourselves what we understand by the term “Whistleblowing”. There is no globally accepted definition for whistle-blowing although several attempts have been made to define it. Ralph Nader was one of the first few in modern history to use the term “whistle-blowing” and in his book, it was defined that whistleblowing is an act of a man or woman who, believing that public interest overrides the interest of the organization he serves, blows the whistle that the organization is in corrupt, illegal, fraudulent or harmful activity (Nader, Petkas & Blackwell 1972). Perhaps, the most common used explanation of whistleblowing was given by Miceli and Near (1985) as “the disclosure by organization members (former or current) of illegal, immoral or illegitimate practices under the control of their employers, to persons or organizations that may be able to effect action”
From the two definitions, we can agree that the term “Whistleblowing” is an act of an employee (either current or former) who believed that he is morally responsible to the society by reporting the wrongdoings or practices of an organization which is corrupt, illegal, fraudulent or harmful within the organization (internal) or outside the organization (external). It is good to note that despite the question stated unethical or illegal, we should be focusing activities which are corrupt, illegal, fraudulent or harmful rather than activities which may be unethical but legal. Few of the examples are employing child labor in underdeveloped countries and companies involved in activities which could lead environmental degradation.
In accordance to the second review of Singapore Code of Corporate Governance issued in May 2012 which stated “the
Before we proceed into the essay question, we need to ask ourselves what we understand by the term “Whistleblowing”. There is no globally accepted definition for whistle-blowing although several attempts have been made to define it. Ralph Nader was one of the first few in modern history to use the term “whistle-blowing” and in his book, it was defined that whistleblowing is an act of a man or woman who, believing that public interest overrides the interest of the organization he serves, blows the whistle that the organization is in corrupt, illegal, fraudulent or harmful activity (Nader, Petkas & Blackwell 1972). Perhaps, the most common used explanation of whistleblowing was given by Miceli and Near (1985) as “the disclosure by organization members (former or current) of illegal, immoral or illegitimate practices under the control of their employers, to persons or organizations that may be able to effect action”
From the two definitions, we can agree that the term “Whistleblowing” is an act of an employee (either current or former) who believed that he is morally responsible to the society by reporting the wrongdoings or practices of an organization which is corrupt, illegal, fraudulent or harmful within the organization (internal) or outside the organization (external). It is good to note that despite the question stated unethical or illegal, we should be focusing activities which are corrupt, illegal, fraudulent or harmful rather than activities which may be unethical but legal. Few of the examples are employing child labor in underdeveloped countries and companies involved in activities which could lead environmental degradation.
In accordance to the second review of Singapore Code of Corporate Governance issued in May 2012 which stated “the