...Employment-at-will Doctrine Whistleblower Strategy Yasser Benadada Strayer University Professor Holeman Table of Contents Employment at will Doctrine 2 Public-policy exception 2 Implied-contract exception 3 Covenant-of-good-faith and Tort based exceptions 3 Evaluation each of the eight (8) scenarios: 4 Recommend whistleblower policy 7 Fundamental Items to Whistleblower policy 8 References 10 Employment at will Doctrine According to Clarkson, Miller, Jentz & Cross (2004, p.235), employment at will is a common law doctrine under which either party may terminate an employment relationship at any time for any reason, unless a contract specifies otherwise. Today this common law doctrine is widely used and applies in every state except Montana. However, state and federal statutes that govern employment relationships prevent the doctrine from being applied under certain circumstances. As such, employees who are wrongfully discharged may bring legal action against their employer based on violations of employment contract or statutory law. These state and federal statutes collectively are known as the exceptions to the employment at will doctrine that the courts adopted because of the harsh effects on employees. Public-policy exception According to Sentell & Robbins (2008), under the public-policy exception to employment at will, an employee is wrongfully discharged when the termination is against an explicit, well-established public policy of the State. For...
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...is difficult to prove. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are three exceptions to the employment-at-will doctrine. These address terminations that do not seem just although they technically comply with the doctrine requirements (Muhl, 2001). The first exception is a termination that undermines an action that would be beneficial for society, or is a violation of a State’s public policies. The next exception prohibits employee termination after an implied contract has been established from written assurances, a company handbook, policies or behavior. Finally, an implied covenant of “good faith and fair dealings” between employer and employee is an exception that is the least used among the 50 states. In certain cases, such as those protecting financial service sectors and federal employees, whistleblowing is not a legal ground for termination. A whistleblower is someone who seeks to protect the integrity of a company by disclosing unethical or illegal activities to supervisors, regulators or the media in some cases. The desired result, for a whistleblower, is corrective action by the organization to restore the implementation of proper work behavior and ethics. Unfortunately, this is not always the outcome and...
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...and organizational whistleblowing policies are intended to reduce the wrongdoing in organizations and protect the person that reports these wrongdoings. It is easier for employees to report wrongdoing when the issue of of a legal nature, as compared to wrongdoings that have an ethical issue to them. The legal wrongdoing is clearer and therefore the whistleblower has less confusion in the matter. Additionally, the whistleblower may feel that they are legally responsible if they do not report the behavior or incident (Tsahuridu & Vandekerckhove, 2008). Ethical wrongdoing is mercurial, leaving the issue open for translation, if it is not clearly stated as wrong in the company policies. Not all issues can be clearly covered even in a comprehensive policy. This leaves employees unclear about the situation and the appropriate action to take. Individuals in the workplace should feel safe reporting potential wrongdoing regardless of exact knowledge of its nature. Any circumstance that appears to be unethical to an individual should be reported and is appropriate. This will assist the individual in continuing to be a moral individual and support the development of an ethical organization (Alleyne, Hudaib, & Pike, 2013; Badaracco & Ellsworth, 1989). Does whistle blowing violate company loyalty? Whistleblowing does present itself as a conflict between the organization or organizational leader and the individual whistleblower. An organization with a clear code...
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...Assignment 1: Employment-At-Will Doctrine 5/4/14 * Summarize the employment-at-will doctrine and evaluate each of the eight (8) scenarios described by determining: The employment-at-will doctrine states that an employee can be fired or released from a company for cause or no cause at all. The employee also has the right to quit a job for any reason. Under this legislation, neither the employer or employee incurs “adverse legal consequences” (NCSL, 2014). There are three exceptions that are observed by the law to include a dismissal that “violates a state’s public policy, where there is an implied contract for employment, or where there is an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing” (Muhl, 2001, p4). People cannot be fired based on the “individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin” (Halbert & Ingulli, 2012, p134). An individual can also not be fired based on a disability or due to filing a workman’s comp claim. Imagine you are a recently-hired Chief Operating Officer (COO) in a midsize company preparing for an Initial Public Offering (IPO). You quickly discover multiple personnel problems that require your immediate attention. As an astute manager, you will need to analyze the employment-at-will doctrine and determine what, if any, exceptions and liabilities exist before taking any action. * Whether you can legally fire the employee; include an assessment of any pertinent exceptions to the employment-at-will doctrine. ...
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...Whistle Blower Whistle blowing can generally define as a process rather than an event (Near and Miceli, 2002). Whistleblower give the information of scam or the dishonest act of the company or other employer or other parties as well as the government. Whistleblower is a person or the entity making a protected act for illegal or inappropriate act. Whistleblower can be employees, customers or the general public. For an organization it happens to have an internal or external whistleblower. Most of the whistleblower is an internal whistleblower, who only reports the misconduct within the organization. However, an external whistleblower reports the misconduct out of the organization which includes the lawyers, the media, or the different agencies. The importance of an existence whistle blower especially in an organization. It helps to perform uncommon tasks likely as payment are insufficient to support financially of the program and services that provided by the Americans. For instance, Healthcare, the Pharmaceutical industry and Medicare. Moreover, the government needs the help of whistle blower due to the government has insufficient of time, resources and most of the fraudulent claims made against it every year. Yet, whistle blower has made a part of an implication of committing to a fighting fraud. If a person choose to reports the fraud you have witnesses, it will have a guide to every step of the way (Quitam-lawyer.com, 2014) ** In this bleak institutional context, whistle...
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...and the co-CEO agreement. Liska’s behavior markedly deteriorated after Jha’s hiring, implying that he was unhappy to be outranked by the new co-CEO. The reason behind Liska’s inflammatory presentation is a matter of contention. Liska says he was trying to fulfill his duty to the company by raising a red flag about the cellphone unit’s projections. Motorola says Liska knew he was on his way out, and he tried to extort the company by setting himself up as a whistle-blower who was being fired for speaking out. Another famous whistleblowing case is the case of WikiLeaks.2 WikiLeaks is an international non-profit organization which aims to publish online submissions of classified information, news leaks 3 from anonymous news sources and whistleblowers.4 It unleashed the wrath of the U.S. government and a wave of recrimination and reprisals against WikiLeaks and its key figures. Twitter was the only Internet Company to support WikiLeaks while others cut off essential resources to WikiLeaks’ survival. The goal of WikiLeaks is "to bring important news and information to the public”. People publish original source material alongside the news stories so readers and historians alike can see evidence of the truth. The social...
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...resource field for almost 20 years. Both women seem to have been successful in their positions. Sharon seems to have an alpha personality. She will “jump” to get things done in the fastest way possible. I am concerned however, by her stating that she does not want to waste time by planning out anything with a lengthy implementation. UWEAR is going through a merger and although people tend to resist change, it cannot be avoided at this point. Also, considering Sharon is the HR manager for UWEAR, it should be noted that she was hired directly out of college with no prior experience. She also has not been kept abreast as to the legislation that is currently required for publicly traded companies, which can be seen by not having a whistleblower protection policy that should have been implemented after the SOX Act. Sharon’s style relies heavily on her intuition. She believes she can assess the environment around her and know what needs to be done. This is a great strength if she indeed can accurately assess her situation and see the path that needs to be followed to get the job done. Her weakness is her lack of enthusiasm for having a predetermined plan with an implementation timeline. Another strength that Sharon has, is her experience in being a part of a company that has grown into a larger, publicly traded company. She would be able to assist Marcia in the transition from a private company to a larger, publicly traded one (My Unique Student Experience, 2015). Marcia has only been...
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...government Government whistleblowing How Snowden formed society Introduction Whistleblowing, an act of certain controversy, has provided material for many a discussion. It has filled our newspapers, televisions and radios on a daily basis, since Wikileaks went public with its first act of exposing illegal activity. ‘Whistleblowing’ is a dynamic process involving at least three social actors; the wrongdoer, the whistleblower and the recipient, each of whom takes actions in response to the other’ (Near et al., p 509, 1996), while accepting the associated dangers and risks. Current events relating to Edward Snowden, Julian Assange and Bradley Manning have sparked intense debate throughout the world regarding policy changes, creation of new laws and the conduct of government and corporations. It is widely agreed that whistleblowing exists and happens on a daily basis. Scholars have examined the topic over the years narrowing it down to ethnical divergences or even to how the act of wrongdoing can impact a whistleblower. The importance and understanding of whistleblowing Age has a significant impact on the way an individual perceives situations and actions, indeed the way he looks at the world, due to experience, lifestyle and the effects of media. There are major differences between 18 year olds and 50 year olds when it comes to the influence of media. The scope and size of the Internet has grown from 16 million in 1995 to 2,749 million users in...
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...Loyalty And Professional Rights (ESSAY #6) Introduction The relationship between engineers and employers has come under increasing scrutiny in recent years. This essay describes some of the recent debate regarding employee rights and loyalty. Section one deals with the legal environment. Court cases dealing with employee loyalty and its limits have changed the legal aspects of employment dramatically in the last twenty years. A sketch of those changes will be made here. Section two discusses some theoretical attempts at resolving the tension between company loyalty and public responsibility. Finally, the third section describes actual policies that different corporations and government agencies have used to deal with the issue of employee rights. Legal and Regulatory Environment The trend in the law is toward increased recognition of employee rights. Until recently, American law has been governed by the common-law doctrine of "employment at will," where, in the absence of a contract, an employer can discharge an employee at any time and for whatever reason the employer considers relevant. This doctrine determined the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's position in a 1967 case of Geary v. United States Steel Corp1. Mr. Geary was not educated as an engineer, but he had 14 years of engineering experience with U.S. Steel. Mr. Geary became convinced that a new type of pipe that U.S. Steel was using was unsafe under high pressure. He attempted to make his concerns known to management, but...
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...of this article is to increase awareness of the need for whistleblower policies for universities, governmental entities, and organizations. According to wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia, a whistleblower is a person who raises a concern about a wrongdoing 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...
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...are eventually proven, both the whistle-blower and those accused of wrong doing pay a price. Corporate culture has the responsibility to provide employees with compliance policies that will assist them with programs and policies designed to encourage employees to raise safety concerns. Groups that have recently assumed or are considering assuming these forms of strategies which are commonly referred to as whistleblower policies stand to learn from establishments that have years of knowledge in initiating and refining them. A whistle-blower may innocently come forward with allegations against another, only to face severe scrutiny and charges of disloyalty. Some experts mention that more than 60 percent of whistle-blowers suffered at least one damaging result, for example being pressured to withdraw their charges, being ostracized by coworkers, and even being threatened with a lawsuit. Whistle-blowers can be fired and “blackballed” in the industry. Companies will benefit from implementing a policy called “collaboration policy” to encourage employees to come forward with and work together as a group to correct any complaints or concerns they may have regarding corporate misconducts found within the company. The term “whistleblower” raises certain negative descriptions because whistleblowers are considered to...
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...Assignment: Assignment 1 Title: Employment At-Will Doctrine Student: David Nti-Berko Professor: Anne E. Dewey-Balzhiser Course: LEG 500 – Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance Submission Date: 07/28/2013 Introduction Since the latter part of the nineteenth century, employment at-will has been the starting point in America employer-employee relationships (D. Mathews, 1975). Under the doctrine of employment at-will, an employer may terminate employees for good cause, bad cause, or no cause at all. Most western industrialized countries do not observe employment at-will doctrine. According to the legal history, employment at-will doctrine is a legal fiction unintentionally invented by Horace C. Wood in his legal thesis in 1877 on employment law entitled “Master and Servant” (Toussaint v. Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Michigan, Mich. 1980). At-will employees can be terminated for any reason or no reason at all. This means that in an at-will workplace there is no esoteric form of fairness or justice that can be protected or enforced by the courts. In the states whereby employment at-will doctrine is observed, an employer or supervisor can terminate an employee because they do not like their style of dress, choice of music or maybe even the color of their shirt, and the employee would have no real legal recourse in most instances. Because employees can be terminated for no reason, it does create a dilemma for...
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...biggest factors in theft of time is the internet. Employees have easy access to the internet, from work issued computers to the use of smart phones. Unfortunately, with the use of personal cell phones, even with policies put into place to prevent and/or prohibit the use of cell phones during work hours, is usually not enough to stop many employees. Furthermore, these forms of theft of time typically go unnoticed by companies but policies and other means of prevention can be put in place to deter employees from such activities. Many companies block out popular websites, such as social media websites or some competitor websites. Also, computers issued by the company are company property and are monitored. When employees know their internet usage is being watched, they are more careful with what they attempt to access on the internet during work hours. To monitor hours worked, and when lunch breaks are taken, all employees are typically issued employee id numbers. The employees use this number to sign in and out of work and their time is tracked. This way it helps prevent long lunch breaks and makes sure employees are working during their scheduled time. 2. What does the word Whistleblower mean (legally speaking)? Give an example of whistleblowing. A whistleblower...
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...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, he often hopes to keep his job.” (Newton, Englehardt, & Pritchard, 2012). Whistleblowing is ethical when the company through...
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...Failures by Frederick D. Lipman In order for boards to fulfill their oversight obligations, the organizations they serve must have robust whistleblower and compliance policies and programs to encourage reporting that can help identify risk exposures, fraud, or other illegal activity. This report identifies common pitfalls in many current whistleblower and compliance programs, and it offers recommendations on how audit committees can strengthen them. Government investigations, bankruptcy receiver reports, and numerous books provide a rich source of information about the major corporate disasters of the first decade of the twenty-first century. Although the financial implosions, starting with Enron and ending with Lehman Brothers, have significant differences, one common corporate governance theme can be seen: The board, and, in particular, the independent directors, did not have the information required to properly perform their oversight duties, even though such information was known to various members of management. In almost all the cases, the directors claimed they were misinformed or “duped” by the CEO or CFO.1 In this respect, these disasters were partly the result of corporate governance failure and, in particular, a failure to establish a robust whistleblower system as an internal control. Those 1 Frederick Lipman, Whistleblowers: Incentives, Disincentives and Protection Strategies, (Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2012), pp. 82-83. failures also offer evidence that...
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