...WHISTLE- BLOWING Introduction: Whistle-blowing is an attempt by a present or former member of an organisation to disclose the wrong acts in an organisation. First it was made by the government employees who made complaints of corruption or mismanagement in government offices. Later on it is used in corporatesector. Features of whistle-blowing: Whistle-blowing is the release of information by a member of the organisation regarding the illegal or corrupt conduct in the organisation. It has the following salient features: ✓ First of all. whistle-blowing can be done only by a member of an organisation. It is not like a witness of a crime but by an employee within the organisation. When the employees who become aware of illegal or immoral conduct in their own organisation resort to whistle-blowing. ✓ Secondly. there must be information in whistle-blowing. It should involve the release of non-public information. There is a distinction between blowing the whistle and sounding the alarm. The whistle blowers have to reveal new facts. ✓ Thirdly. the information should be of some significant kind of misconduct on the part of an organisation. Whistle-blowing is reserved for matters of substantial importance. For example, companies paying heavy funding for political parties is known to outsiders only from people who are associated with the companies. ✓ Fourthly. the information through whistle-blowing must be released outside the normal channels of communication...
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...Executive Summary Whistle blowing is when an employee raises a concern about wrongdoing or malpractice in the workplace that has a public interest aspect to it. Persons who act as whistle blowers are often subjected to retaliation by their employers. Therefore it became important to protect whistle blowers by introducing the Disclosure Protection Act (Act 26 of 2000). The purpose is to provide procedures and offer protection to employees against organisational detriment. Even though the Act intends to protect whistle blowers, the reporting rate has declined. Thus it is crucial to investigate the current procedures in order to provide recommendations to improve the Act, consequently curbing fraud and miscarriage of justice. Question 1 • How are informants being protected? As employers and employees consequently have to disclose criminal and unwanted conduct within the workplace, steps need to be instilled by employers to ensure that whistle blowers are protected from occupational detriment. This act attempt to prevent employers from treating disclosing employees with detriment such as disciplinary action, demotion, harassment, unwanted transfers, etc. • Who is being protected? Employees disclosing legitimate concerns about irregularities are being protected by the act. Those employees are to be protected from unwarranted conduct by their employers and cannot be discriminated against. They may not be victimised or penalised by their employer in any form for having made...
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...Is There a Right to Blow the Whistle? Whistle-blowing is the unforced release of confidential information, as a moral protest, by a member or an ex-member of an organization to an suitable audience outside the usual channels of communication regarding illegal and/or immoral behavior in the organization that is acting against public interest. There are some laws in existence that protects whistle-blowers. The first of these is the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which allows federal employees to report waste and corruption in the government without fear of retaliation. In order to receive and take action on complaints of retaliation, the act set up the Merit System Protection Board. The Whistle-Blower Protection Act of 1989 reinforces this protection with the formation of the Office of Special Counsel for going through whistle-blower reports. In both private and public sectors, federal legislation protects whistle-blowers, and some states even give rewards for whistle-blowing. Regarding whistle-blower protection, there are arguments in favor of it as well as arguments against it. The main argument in its favor is that the society can benefit from the revealing of illegal activities, waste, and mismanagement; this can only occur if whistle-blowers can come forward without having to worry about any retaliatory actions. Another argument is that those who work for the government have a First Amendment right to freedom of speech and so should be protected from retaliation. Also...
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...WHISTLE BLOWING Defination Whistle blowing is an attempt by an employee or former employer of an organization to disclose what she or he believes to be wrong doing sin or 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...
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...What’s in a name? – Would whistle-blowing be a more acceptable practice if it was called by another name? What other names might it be called that would find acceptance in corporate culture? Organizations should use a more acceptable name to encourage employees to come forward with concerns or complaints of wrongdoings within the company. Whistle-blowing may be a strong incentive for some individuals. However, often both the whistle-blower and the individual involved in the wrongdoing are treated as suspect. Whether or not the allegations 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”...
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...Ethics: Whistleblowing What is whistleblowing? Whistle blowing is an attempt by a member or former member of an organisation to disclose wrongdoing in or by an organisation. There are 4 different kinds of whistleblowing: Governmental, internal, external as well as personal whistleblowing. Why is whistleblowing important? A 2004 study by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) reported that organizations without proper mechanisms for reporting fraud and unethical behaviour suffered fraud-related losses that were almost twice as high as those with such mechanisms. It also stated that about 40% of frauds are initially detected through whistleblowing, compared to 24% for internal audits, 21% by accident, 18% through internal controls, and 11% through internal audits. Thus, it is important to have a proper whistle blowing mechanism present in all organisations. Ethical Issue 1: Protection of whistle-blowers Protection of whistle-blowers is needed to encourage people to whistle-blow especially when: 1. Efforts to inform employers or government agencies have proven to be futile and he/she needs to go to the media. Example: HSBC Everett Stern case Stern was an Anti-Money Laundering officer at HSBC. In _____, he found many discrepancies and informed his supervisors and even the government agencies about it. However, there was no action taken. Stern then had to resort going to various media outlets to whistle blow on HSBC’s role in facilitating money laundering...
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...conscious greatly affects one’s decision making, especially when the topic of whistle blowing arises. In this paper, I will discuss and analyze whistle-blowing, where it occurs, the effects of whistle-blowing, whether whistle-blowing is an act of betrayal or public service, the consequences of whistle-blowing, and finally I close my paper with a conclusion. This paper also aims to provide a balanced approach to this topic. Understood correctly whistle-blowing is defined as an informant who exposes wrongdoing within an organization. Whistle-blowing is not about informing in the negative but more so, raises concern about malpractice within an organization. More so, it can also be defined as the release of information by a member (or former member) of an organization where there is evidence of illegal or immoral conduct in the organization, or conduct in the organization that is not in the public interest . The decision and bravery of being prepared to blow the whistle is directly related to the cultural resistance in many organizations to be transparent and accountability. It is hard to imagine the agony of discovering wrongdoing in your profession. The choice of keeping quiet can put others at risk and your guilty conscious will start you to thinking if you made the right decision .Blowing the whistle could also mean professional destruction. (en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/whistle-blowing). Surprisingly whistle blowing is on...
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...What is a whistle blower? What is a whistle blower? To the untrained eye, you may think that a whistle blower is a person who controls a sport or game with a loud device called whistle. In reality, a whistle blower has become an important part of the American business landscape. So what is a whistle blower? According to Blacks Law Dictionary, a whistleblower is an employee who turns against their superiors to bring a[n] problem out in the open. BusinessDictionary.com states that a whistle blower is a person who discloses improper or criminal activity within an organization. Finally, under Sarbanes Oxley, “A “whistleblower” is someone, usually an employee, who reports an employer who has broken the law to an outside agency.” Under this very important act, whistleblowers are protected by federal and state laws. Employers may not retaliate against them for reporting misconduct. Whistleblowers may not be fired or otherwise mistreated, and in some instances the government may reimburse them for costs incurred as a result of reporting. Most importantly, the federally enacted statute of Dodd – Frank defines a whistle blower as, “Any individual who provides . . . information relating to a violation of the securities laws to the Commission in a manner established, by rule or regulation, by the Commission.” There are two types of whistle blowers: external and internal. An internal whistle blower is a person who reports misconduct on a fellow employee or superior within their company...
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...Table of Contents 1.0 Executive Summary 2 2.0 Statement of the Problem 5 3.0 Causes of the Problem 7 4.0 Decision Criteria and Alternative Solutions 10 5.0 Recommended Solution, Implementation and Justification 11 6.0 External Sources 14 1.0 Executive Summary WorldCom’s origin can be traced to the 1983 breakup of AT&T. Small, regional companies could now gain acces to AT&T’s long distance handphone lines at deeply discounted rates. The companies turn to Bernard J (Bernei) Ebbers, one of its original nine investors, to run things. Ebbers had previously been employed as a milkman, bartender, bar bouncer, car salesman, truck driver, garment factory foreman, high school basketball coach, and hotelier. Eventhough he is lacked technology experience. In 1996, WorldCom entered the local service market by purchasing MFS Communications Company, Inc., for $12.4 billion. MFS’s subsidiary, UUNET, gave WorldCom a substantial international presence and a large ownership stake in the world’s Internet backbone. The figure below is the executive summary of WorldCom:- In this case, the pressure of the business condition drives the BOD of WorldCom to do unethical action. The person involve in this cases are Bernard J. (Bernie) Ebbers and Scott Sullivan. The major problem that WorldCom has face is Industry conditions began to deteriorate in 2000 due to heightened competition, overcapacity, and the reduced demand for telecommunications services at the onset of the economic...
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...incident happened two corrections officers broke rank and became whistle blowers .This article will explain what whistle blowing is and how it affects public administration. The situation is at Corcoran prison there was prison guards exploiting racial tensions to stage fights between inmates for the entertainment of the prison guards needs revision (Holdings 1996). The men (who exactly) told of instances where rival gang members would be put together to fight. The guards would bet on who would win the fight. One of the inmates was shot and killed in a staged fight and two guards knew what happened. According to Rigg and Caruso, these guards discharged their weapons needlessly in order to stop the fights and sometimes hit the wrong inmate. After each shooting, the guards falsified reports in order to make the shooting seem justified (Arax 1996). This is unethical because the guards who had power over the inmates were abusing their power because they were using their positions to justify their actions needs rewording or further clarification. Caruso and Rigg believed that the officers who staged the fights were exploiting inmates by using the legalities of the shooting and integration policies in an unethical manner that violated the prisoners’ civil rights how so( Holdings 1996). Using Westman’s (1991) definition, Caruso and Rigg can be considered active whistle-blowers because they used internal and external channels to express concern...
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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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...Unit Three: Case Incident 2: Whistle Blowers: Saints or Sinners Rachel Hogan Kaplan University MT302 Organizational Behavior May 17th, 2011 Corporate whistle-blowing, reporting company wrong-doings is a controversial subject of debate. There have been several widely known cases in which reputations are damaged, sometimes unsubstantiated or falsely, and where informants have received hefty pay-offs. The adoption of the whistle blower law pays informants thirty percent of legal fines received from lawsuits in whistle blowing cases (Judge & Robbins). I believe corporate whistle-blowing is good for organizations, its members, and the general public. It is important for corporate wrong-doings and do-ers to be brought to the attention of senior management. The sooner the wrong-doings are reported and investigated, the better for everyone involved. Before the issue is handled publicly or in court, the organization should have the opportunity to rectify the wrong-doings, which would save money in legal proceedings, and save the reputation of the company. According to our Organizational Behavior textbook, self-fulfilling prophecy has “evolved to characterize the fact that an individual’s behavior is determined by other people’s expectation” (Robbins & Judge, 2007). With this in mind, I believe self-fulfilling prophecy can drive an individual’s search for incriminating evidence or sometimes hinder it. An employee may have a negative self-fulfilling...
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...Task 11. Explain policies and procedures that are in place to protect children and young people and adults who work with them. The different policies and procedures which protect children, young people and adults who work with them in my setting we are: child protection/safeguarding policy- Which has six main aims to support both staff and children. 1. Ensure safe recruitment and examine suitability of staff and volunteer to work with children. 2. Raise awareness of child protection and safeguarding and equip staff and children with skills to keep them safe. 3. following procedures for identifying and reporting cases or suspected cases of harm/abuse. 4. Support children who have been abused in accordance with agreed child protection plan. 5. Establishing safe environment for...
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...Whistle Blowing in Government or in a Business To speak or keep silent, those are the two of many common issues that plays along with the ethical considerations and morale of a Whistle Blower. On the other hand, what if you saw fraudulent actions of someone, should you speak or keep quiet? What if the person doing the fraudulent actions was a friend or a high ranking official, should you speak or keep silent, these and many others are the complex situations that could happen within a business organization. Whistle blowing, which seems to become increasingly common as employees speak out about ethical concerns or illegal practices in the work place to the public or to authorities. “There is a great deal of evidence to suggest that whistle blowing is one of the most important sources of information or detecting and reducing illegal and unethical corporate behaviors” (Kohn 2011). In general, whistle blowers feel a need to report the incident in order to put a stop to the illegal or ethical concern in the business or to correct them from happening on a regular basis. In the past years, there have been a lot of cases where employees have decided to come up in public eye and expose the unethical behavior within their companies. There is no doubt that many unquestionable practices among business organizations are being committed daily. With all the recent cases of corporate fraud, companies now provide for internal rules to protect the whistle-blower against retaliation,...
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...the head of Motorola’s cell phone division, by doing the presentation at the board meeting. The whistleblowing occurred because Liska and Jha did not get along well, and Liska tried to save the situation with an attack on Jha. Liska objected to Jha’s hiring, his compensation package 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...
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