...Whistleblowing: Necessary Evil or Good Thing Maureen Haley University of North Carolina – Asheville April 16, 2014 This paper was prepared for Management 484-001, taught by Professor Donald D. Lisnerski Whistleblowing: Necessary Evil or Good Thing Is whistleblowing a necessary evil or good thing? Can whistleblowing be avoided? Can the whistleblower be protected? “A whistleblower is an employee who discovers corporate misconduct and chooses to bring it to the attention of others.”(Ghillyer, 2014) Whistleblowers can be viewed as providing a praiseworthy act or be severely labeled as informers who have breached the loyalty of their co-workers and company. Whistleblowing can be a service to the community and public. Whistleblowing can be ethical or unethical, and the whistleblower discovering corporate misconduct has the options to be an internal or an external whistleblower. Whistleblowing can save people’s lives. Dr. Jeffrey Wigand made the decision to go public with information that his employer Brown & Williamson (B&W) was manipulating the nicotine content, suppressed efforts to develop safer cigarettes, and lied about the addictive properties of nicotine. According to Sissela Bok, in the book Taking Sides: Clashing views in Business Ethics and Society, “not only is loyalty violated in whistleblowing, hierarchy as well is often opposed, since the whistleblower is not only a colleague but a subordinate. Though aware of the risks inherent in such disobedience...
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...occurring in an organization or body of people, usually this person would be from that same organization. Wikipedia states that whistle blowing is the disclosure to the public or to authorities, usually by an employee, of wrongdoing in a company or government department. Whistleblowing inside the workplace is the reporting, by employees or ex-employees, of wrongdoing such as fraud, malpractice, mismanagement, breach of health and safety law or any other illegal or unethical act, either on the part of management or by fellow employees, cited from wikipedia. A whistleblowing policy encourages staff to speak out if they have legitimate concerns about wrongdoings, as distinct from individual grievances, and establishes an accessible procedure for doing so. The policy may form part of a wider code of conduct. In order to encourage disclosure, many federal and state statutes prohibit employers from retaliating against an employee who files reports. The revealed misconduct may be classified in many ways; for example, a violation of a law, rule, regulation and/or a direct threat to public interest, such as fraud, health/safety violations, and corruption. Whistleblowers may make their allegations internally (for example, to other people within the accused organization) or externally (to regulators, law enforcement agencies, to the media or to groups concerned with the issues). Whistleblowers frequently face reprisal, sometimes at the hands of the organization or group which they have accused...
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...EMPLOYMENT ESSAY Legislation to protect and encourage "whistleblowing" in relation to work issues has proved inadequate.' Discuss. Whistleblowing by definition is when an employee provides information of illegal activity or any other wrong doing to their employer or supervisor. The concern raised by the employee may be about a fellow employee, a third party outside of the workplace or even the employer and the employee does not necessarily have to be directly affected by the illegal activity to have the right to disclose it. The general consensus is that an employee who makes a “protected disclosure” that is in the public interest should be protected by law from any unfair treatment resulting in making the disclosure. In this essay I will evaluate whether the law protects whistleblowers adequately. Prior to the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 coming into force on the 2nd of July 1999, whistleblowers did not have protection against unfair dismissal. Employees who attempted to expose of illegal activity would face open discrimination by their bosses and fellow employees, they would also face disciplinary action and were often denied of career advancement. The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 came into force to protect workers and a worker in this context includes most workers in the public, private and voluntary sectors. The Act does not apply to self-employed workers other than those in the NHS, and voluntary workers such as charity trustees and charity volunteers...
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...strategies that are used to minimise abuse within the health and social care contexts. The caring professions provide some examples of what people thought may have been a good practice of care then but actually is poor or even abusive practice. The main reason why this happens is due to the changes that occurs within working policies. Within my workplace we have different policies that safeguard vulnerable adults, here are some of working practices that I believe help safeguard: • Complaints Policy Effective communication • Record-keeping Policy Risks Assessments • Confidentiality Policy Recruitment procedures • Data Protection Policy Induction • Protection of Vulnerable Adults Policy Training • Whistleblowing Policy Codes of conduct • Care plans – Person Centred Care Reflective practice • Anti – discriminatory / Anti – oppressive practice • Organisations safeguarding policy & procedures Each resident is assessed before arriving at the home, once assessed our nurse manager produces a careplan for that resident. The resident and their family have the right to be involved in developing a meaningful and effective care plan. The nursing home must work with the resident to develop an individualized, written care plan and must update it at least quarterly and any time your condition changes. Each resident important right is to receive good care. To give good care, the nursing home staff must plan to support the...
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...prevent any harm for occurring to their patients, the obligation to tell the truth, treat all patients equally and fairly, allow others to make decisions for individual patients, keep promises and commitments they make, and to treat everyone with respect. Ethical values are influenced by personal feelings, and are interpreted differently depending on the beliefs of the individual. The Britannica Concise Encyclopedia defines the code of ethics for nurses as follows: The code of ethics for nurses was developed as a guide for carrying out nursing responsibilities in a manner consistent with quality on nursing care and the ethical obligations of the profession. With the advances in technology and changes in the health care system has resulted in many ethical situations. New technologies are more expensive and little benefit to organizations who struggle with allocations of health care...
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...PharmaCARE: Ethics and Corporate Responsibility in the Workplace and the World PharmaCARE: Ethics and Corporate Responsibility in the Workplace and the World In any type of business or organization there are ethical issues, conflicts, and successes revolving around relationships. It is those relationships considered one of the key areas of making the business function. The relationships between customers, the employees, managers, supervisors, shareholders, investors and suppliers all shape the course of the business in order for it to be successful. In addition, an organization usually has a governing authority; called a board of directors, which provides oversight and guidance to make sure that the organization keeps focused on objectives in a legal, ethical and socially acceptable manner. Often unethical acts are discovered in organizations; therefore, relationships are not only associated with organizational success but also with organizational misconduct. ("An overview of," 2006) As in the case with PharmaCARE, there were multiple unethical issues due to bad decision making within the company; decisions that affected employees, business partners, and customers. As a result, its stock price plummeted. Stakeholders are those who may be affected by or have an effect on an effort. Most ethical issues exist because of conflicts in values and belief patterns about right and wrong between and within stakeholder groups. There are three types of stakeholders: * Primary stakeholders...
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...thereby guilty of a legal wrong” (Halbert, T. and Ingulli p.49). According to Justice Harlan, “The right of an employee to quit the services of the employer, for whatever reason, is the same as the right of the employer, for whatever reason, to dispense with the services of such employee. A theoretical support for employment- at -will was the laissez-faire (hands-off) viewpoint. This doctrine is also referred to the “freedom of contract”. The contract is a conception that employers are in liberty to dispose of what they own. It can be the disposing of their labor, for instance, as the employer sees fit. Professional voluntary contractual agreements are legitimately enforceable (Falcone 1999). Not all states assert at-will relationships. For example, Montana has enacted a statute that prohibits employers from discharging employees without "good cause." Further, in states where at-will employment does exist, it is littered with statutory exceptions. That means you cannot terminate workers if the discharge infringes on a protected right or goes against public policy (Falcone 1999). There are exceptions to the Employment-at Will-Doctrine. The US Supreme Court proclaimed that employees could not be fired as punishment for endeavoring to establish unions in 1935. In the 1960s, Federal Civil Rights created laws against employees who fire workers because of their race, national origins, color, religion, sex, age or disability. Federal and state statutes incorporated protection from retribution...
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...The Need for Whistleblowing Legislation in Canada: A Critical Defence Jonathan Carson Research Officer The Association of Management, Administrative and Professional Crown Employees of Ontario 1 Dundas Street West Suite 2310, Box 72 Toronto, ON M5G 1Z3 carson@amapceo.on.ca Paper presented to the Canadian Political Science Association Conference, June 2006 The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of AMAPCEO Working Paper – Please do not cite without permission from the author Introduction This paper is about the need for whistleblowing legislation in Canada, at both the federal and provincial levels. The focus of the paper is squarely on the public service. Although certain jurisdictions (for example, the United Kingdom1) have a single disclosure regime covering both the private and public sectors, then general trend throughout the world is for distinct legislation for the two sectors. In Canada, there are already numerous statutory avenues for individuals in both the public and private sectors to blow the whistle; however, the grounds for disclosure are generally quite circumscribed, with the statutes tending to deal only with specific concerns, e.g. occupational health and safety or the environment.2 At present whistleblowing legislation is coming into vogue across Canada, at both levels of government. This paper argues that such legislation should have the modest goal of protecting good faith whistleblowers. This...
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...I am an employee at Wooden which is a large Factory in Littlebury and I have been presented with a difficult decision. One of my co-workers has told me about the ongoing situation regarding the enormous amount of wood dust at the factory and how she saw three quick sparks in the air while she was operating her machine. Now, she is new at the factory and has been working at the factory for only two weeks which makes her afraid to speak up about the situation with anyone past the Section Manager which she did report the incident to. The Section Manager did not pay too much attention to her and told her not to worry about it. Now, the pressure is on me to make a decision on whether or not to report this to someone who will take care of the problem. I decide to speak to several people at the factory before I report the issues at the factory. I spoke to the Safety Coordinator and he basically told me to sit tight and wait until next month when he schedules a major clean up at the factory. I also speak to the Area manager which he tells me to not worry about anything since he has a plethora of experience in the field and recognizes a dangerous situation when he sees one. Speaking to Karen next provides me with a sense of urgency because she tells me she is nervous and how she saw a plant back in her hometown explode due to wood dust. Lastly, I speak to the owner of the factory and he tells me I cannot prove there is a real hazard in the company and that he will consider anything I...
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...because they are dealing with different problems. The professional also needs to inform the patient about any procedures that will need to occur, it is important that the service users are aware of their rights such as demanding a specific professional or to have treatment in a different health service. This is because the patient may not get along with an assigned professional, they feel uncomfortable because of their gender or because the treatment at that practice is more expensive then at a different one. Both the visible and non-visible differences need to be taken into account and not have influence upon the service providers thought process. Workers should not be influenced by their personal views upon a race, culture or sexuality etc. They should not stereotype against any of the service users nor their colleagues, regardless of the action being intentional or not. This can influence the quality of the provision by allowing everyone to feel important and their culture, religion or sexuality to be made significant in the care provided to every individual. It is also important that each and every staff member promotes their patients and clients giving everyone the same opportunity; for example if one person was able to have their treatment carried out in a different city where...
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... Procedures where maltreatment is considered, suspected, confirmed or excluded: * Whistle blowing * Reporting arrangements * Security of records * Sequence of events leading to registration on child protection register or care proceedings Roles and responsibilities: * Following policies and procedures * Observing children and their families and their interaction * How to respond if maltreatment is suspected * What action to take following disclosure * Maintaining confidentiality Responding to direct or indirect disclosure: * Listening skills * Communicating with the child at their own pace and taking them seriously with unconditional acceptance * Reassuring and supporting * Dealing with your own feelings Procedures where maltreatment is considered, suspected, confirmed or excluded Procedures where maltreatment is considered, suspected, confirmed or excluded Whistle Blowing This happens within an organisation, such as social services, when a co-worker suspects/ sees another co-worker not complying with the proper procedures and rules set in place by the organisation its self to support and protect children and young people. The co-worker seeing this will report them to their manger, boss or HR. An example of this is if a social worker choses to...
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...OCR LEVEL 3 CAMBRIDGE TECHNICAL CERTIFICATE/DIPLOMA IN HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE UNIT 14 – WORKING IN THE HEALTH SECTOR ASSIGNMENT 2 |UNIT TUTOR: |Nerys Brooks | |STANDARDISED WITH: |Ann Compton | |(Sign and date) | | |DATE SET: |06/05/16 | |SUBMISSION DATE: |10/06/16 | |LEARNING OUTCOMES: |3 Understand roles and responsibilities in the health sector | | |4 Understand the concept of multi-disciplinary working in the health | | |sector | |ASSESSMENT CRITERIA COVERED IN THIS ASSIGNMENT | |NOTE: The grades listed below are subject to internal and external moderation | |P5 | | | ...
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...up-to-date information. Whistleblowing can be an essential tool to identify and report these actions in the public, private and non-profit sectors. However, by revealing wrongdoings, whistleblowers often take high personal risks. Lacking strong legal protection might increase the change of facing dismissal, harassment and other forms of retaliation (“Whistleblower protection”, 2012). Whistleblower protection is vital to motivate employees to report misconduct. Paying more attention protecting whistleblowers will benefit organizations where employees know how to report a violation and have confidence to report. This will also assist businesses to spot and stop bribery in their transaction deals. Moreover, government and corporate misconduct could be continued if employees were frightened to speak out (“Whistleblower protection”, 2012). Barriers to whistleblowing * Retaliation Retaliation is a negative result experienced by an individual for reporting illegal behaviors. Through history, whistleblowing has been a risky business since it matches between individuals and his or her organization. A relatively few whistleblowers’ cases have survived from this challenge without harm. They usually take over 20 years to be solved placing the employee with no job and a huge amount of debts. Most of the whistleblowers who were interviewed confessed that they were not thinking clearly and had learned an unforgettable lesson (Malmstrom & Mullin, 2014). For example, on December, 30,...
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...The False Claims Act The False Claims Act is an American federal law that covers fraud involving any federally funded contract or program. It is the federal government primary tool in combating fraud against the government. Recent legislation, such as the Fraud Enforcement and Recovery Act of 2009 and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, has broadened the scope of the False Claims Act. The definition of a false claim has been expanded, so now any false statement that is material to a claim can be actionable and liability has been expanded to knowingly failing to repay an overpayment (Cardinal 2013). According to the Wikipedia, this American federal law imposes liability on persons and companies typically federal contractors who defraud governmental programs. The law includes a qui tam provision that allows people who are not affiliated with the government, called "relators" under the law, to file actions on behalf of the government informally called "whistleblowing” especially when the relator is employed by the organization accused in the suit. Qui Tam. Qui Tam is a writ whereby a private individual who assists a prosecution can receive all or part of any penalty imposed (wiki 2015). Its name is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase qui tam pro domino rege quam pro se ipso in hac parte sequitur, meaning “he who sues in this matter for the king as well as for himself” (Wiki, 2015). There are many legal and regulatory principles and concepts affecting the issue...
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...by the organization (James 1995) In Whistleblowing, raising concerns and speaking up are all phrases which describe disclosing information to an employer or where appropriate a regulator, police or the media about malpractice, wrongdoing or a risk to safety. Whistleblowing is providing a solution to resolve such situations: it opens nonexistent or hidden information sources and channels. The reasons for revealing information can be manifold: e.g. when someone notices such an abuse at his/her place of work and would like to discuss it with the relevant person within the organization. We may call it whistleblowing as well when an employee is forced to try to put an end to some kind of unlawful or malignant activities with the help of extra-organizational channels as within the organization either the proper investigation of the case is not guaranteed or the employee might be subject to reprisals. In many cases someone considers it a cause enough to publicize confidential information when the information in question concerns the public at large. In such cases the whistleblower maintains that informing the public is of much stronger interest (namely of public interest) then reserving the confidentiality, exclusivity of the information. A Whistleblower is an informant who exposes wrongdoing within an organization in the hope of stopping it Introduction Whistle blowing brings into conflict the moral values of fairness and loyalty. An example to explain the values and show the conflict...
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