Week 4 Case Studies
DeVry University
Legal and Ethical Issues

Case Study 10.1
Question - What does loyalty to the company mean, and how important is it, morally? Under what circumstances, if any, do employees owe loyalty to their employers? When, if ever, do they owe loyalty to their coworkers?
Answer - Loyalty to the company implies being loyal to the company that you work for. A loyal employee does not steal from the company, they work hard, and they do not actively seek other employment opportunities. Loyalty is extremely important. A loyal staff is usually unified, and they usually share the same goals when doing and completing tasks. Employees do owe their employers some loyalty. The employer puts food on their tables, and clothes on their families back. It works both ways. The employer should be loyal to the employees as well. The only time employees really do not owe their employers loyalty is if they promote an unsafe or hostile work environment. Loyalty to co-workers is important as well. Especially when working in groups. If a fellow employee helps you, or goes out of their way to help you, it is natural to think you owe them some loyalty. What goes around comes around, and loyal people usually have a lot of good coming their way.

Case Study 10.2
Question - Do you think Storms and Ahearn qualify as whistle-blowers? What do you think their motives were?
Answer - I do not think Storms or Ahearn qualified as whistleblowers. Storms simply pointed out unnecessary spending by the Navy with the contractors. The Navy was not breaking any laws by any means paying the contractors. I think the contractors were the people who were in the wrong in this case. The fact that Storm’s just wouldn’t stop and started verbally attacking the Commander’s in the Navy was more of a personal vendetta against those in charge. The money he was originally rewarded could have played a role in his motive. Anybody can sit and pick apart any system in place, and form what I gathered from the story that is exactly what he was doing.
Ahearn waited too long to use the whistleblower act. Had he went on his pass and reported the dumping of the trash that could have qualified him to be a whistleblower. Instead he went into hiding at his girlfriends and surfed for a couple of months before turning himself in. Someone who was truly concerned about the dumping of the trash into the ocean would have reported it immediately. The fact that the commander had statements from other sailor’s stating Ahearn wanted to go see his girlfriend and was going to use the dumping as his excuse took all credibility away from him.