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Is Whistle Blowing Appropriate?

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Is whistle blowing appropriate? Whistle blowing legislation 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 of conduct, removes the concern that an employee may have about this conflict of loyalty to the organization. In fact, this should be interpreted as an act of loyalty. Further, the code of ethics should include clear protection for the whistle blower, thereby indicating that it is a loyal act to blow the whistle. In research

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