Sofie Micklisch

Ethics Discussion

Florida SouthWestern State College

          Whistleblowing is, “the process in which an employee informs another responsible employee in the company about potentially unethical behavior (Stanwick & Stanwick, 2009, p. 212).” Certain rights protect people who whistle-blow. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act offers protection for those people who do so, but certain credibility and problems need to be identified when it is done (Stanwick & Stanwick, 2009). It is odd that a company would suspend one of their own employees for whistleblowing when they are the company that helps people in those types of situations (Rein, 2015).

            By doing this, not only has the company wrongfully done something to their own employees, but also other people might not want to trust them with their cases in the future (Rein, 2015). The whistleblower won the case because whistleblowers are protected under certain rights (Stanwick & Stanwick, 2009). When someone whistle-blows the company has the right to take certain actions. A second option would be that they could completely disregard the situation (Mesmer-Magnus & Viswesvaran, 2005). Certain people in an organization are actually highly valuable whistleblowers because of their job experience, their age, and how long they have been with the organization (Mesmer-Magnus & Viswesvaran, 2005). When looking at the article, it does not mention how long Korb had been with the organization. It does mention that suspending him right away for whistleblowing was an act against federal law (Rein, 2015). Just like any other employee there, Krob has certain rights. If an organization looking to protect whistleblowers pulls that stunt they need to look to their own problems before fixing the problems of others.

References

Rein, L. (2015). The agency that’s supposed to protect whistleblowers across the government got slapped for retaliating against one of its own. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/federal-eye/wp/2015/10/02/guardians-of-the-federal-merit-system-office-that-protects-whistleblowers-slapped-for-going-after-one-of-its-own/

Stanwick, P. & Stanwick, D. (2009). Chapter 11: Evaluating corporate ethics. Understanding business ethics. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.

Mesmer-Magnus, J. & Viswesvaran, C. (2005). Whistleblowing in organizations: An examination of correlates of whistleblowing intentions, actions, and retaliation. Journal of Business Ethics, 62(3). Retrieved from http://db07.linccweb.org/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.db07.linccweb.org/docview/198005225?accountid=10674