Whistleblowing
History of Whistleblowing
The definition of a whistleblower is a past or pesent employee or member of an organization, who reports misconduct to people or entities that have the power and presumed willingness to take corrective action, or to notify the general public of wrongdoing. In most cases, whistleblowers are employees of the ogranization but can be employees of government agencies as well. Normally the misconduct being reported is a violation of law, rule, regulation and/or a direct threat to public interest such as fraud, health, safety violations, and corruption. The word whistleblower originates from the old practice of English bobbies who would blow their whistle when they noticed a crime that was being committed. The blowing of the whistle would alert both law enforcement officers and the general public of danger. (Wikipedia, 2007).
Whistleblowing is not something that is new to today’s modern business world, however, it has grown so much that there is much more impact to all parties involved including the whistleblower. Depending on the magnitue of the misconduct being reported, it will not only change the company and the whistleblower, but also may change the society and how it views different businesses or business in general. Although whistleblowing is not new, the modern day attitude towards it has changed greatly. Before the 1960s, corporations had broad freedom in employee policies and could fire an employee at will, even if no reason existed. Employees of organizations were expected to be loyal to their organizations at all costs. Among the few exceptions to this rule were unionized employees, who could only be terminated for "just cause," and government employees because the courts upheld their constitutional right to criticize agency policies. In the private industry, few real procedures for airing grievances existed. Partly because of this lack of protection for whistleblowers, problems were often hidden rather than solved. Probably
The definition of a whistleblower is a past or pesent employee or member of an organization, who reports misconduct to people or entities that have the power and presumed willingness to take corrective action, or to notify the general public of wrongdoing. In most cases, whistleblowers are employees of the ogranization but can be employees of government agencies as well. Normally the misconduct being reported is a violation of law, rule, regulation and/or a direct threat to public interest such as fraud, health, safety violations, and corruption. The word whistleblower originates from the old practice of English bobbies who would blow their whistle when they noticed a crime that was being committed. The blowing of the whistle would alert both law enforcement officers and the general public of danger. (Wikipedia, 2007).
Whistleblowing is not something that is new to today’s modern business world, however, it has grown so much that there is much more impact to all parties involved including the whistleblower. Depending on the magnitue of the misconduct being reported, it will not only change the company and the whistleblower, but also may change the society and how it views different businesses or business in general. Although whistleblowing is not new, the modern day attitude towards it has changed greatly. Before the 1960s, corporations had broad freedom in employee policies and could fire an employee at will, even if no reason existed. Employees of organizations were expected to be loyal to their organizations at all costs. Among the few exceptions to this rule were unionized employees, who could only be terminated for "just cause," and government employees because the courts upheld their constitutional right to criticize agency policies. In the private industry, few real procedures for airing grievances existed. Partly because of this lack of protection for whistleblowers, problems were often hidden rather than solved. Probably
References: Wikipedia (2007) Whistleblower. Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whistleblower Guttman, Reuben A., Lugbill, Ann, Murphy, Mark The Law: An Overview False Claims Act Whistleblower Employee Protections. Whistleblowerlaws.com, http://whistleblowerlaws.com/protection.htm Ravishankar, Lilanthi Encouraging Internal Whistleblowing in Organizations. http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/submitted/whistleblowing.html Miethe, Terance D. Whistleblowing at Work: Tough Choices in Exposing Fraud, Waste and Abuse on the Job. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1999. Lawrence and Weber, Business and Society Stakeholders, Ethics, and Public Policy, 12 Edition, 2007. Wines, William, Ethics, Law, and Business, 1st Edition, 2006