Business Ethics Assignment

1) Is whistle blowing violation of positive duty of employee? Under what conditions can employee justify such violations? How exactly the duty of loyalty owned to employer weights against duty to the public and large society?

A whistle-blower (whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person who exposes misconduct, alleged dishonest or illegal activity occurring in an organization . The malpractices of the government agency or private enterprise is thus exposed to the public or to those in authority, of mismanagement, corruption, illegality, or some other wrongdoing. Employees should usually abide by the rules of the organization and their actions should be in a manner such that it does not harm the interests of the organization . But then certain situations do arise when the organization may take advantage of the innocent public due to the asymmetric information provided to the clients of the organization . Hence in such situations employees need to take a decision whether such practises should be exposed for the greater good of the society . Hence I feel that whistle blowing is not a violation of positive duty to the employer in some exceptional circumstances such as: If the employee has communicated the issue at hand to the management of the organization and the management has taken no action to address the grievance . If there is a violation of code of ethical framework of employer/organization. If it is for the benefit of society like whistleblowing about organization developing products in the market which have harmful ingredients which can be harmful for people or manufacturing safety products with compromising safety standards, operations causing damage to environment etc.

However the objective of the whistle blower should not be self-serving. Such a decision will have a huge impact on the organization and the people who depend on it for a livelihood. So the person should be completely sure of the facts and should come out in the open only after proper verification and once he is sure that all his channels of communication are exhausted . Hence , whistleblowing can be allowed under some circumstances and is beneficial for society as well as the company in the long run. Such acts for a greater cause should also be supported and encouraged by government. 2)Does Douglass friend has a moral duty to blow the whistle on the company and the managers? Are his family obligations morally relevant in this case? How exactly should he weigh his obligations to the public against his obligations to his family?

We shall first look on the activities of the company before reaching to a decision whether Douglass friend has a moral duty to blow the whistle on the company and the manager or not . As the information shows , the companies activities are highly unethical and moreover the company is selling a faulty product, which is harmful to children. The company though aware

of this is not willing to take any action to rectify the error and in addition to this the cost for improving on this defect is not very expensive. Hence we can see that the behaviour of the company is highly irresponsible and it is the duty of the employees to make this known to society. Hence Douglass friend has a moral duty to blow the whistle. Since consequences of becoming a whistle blower will not only affect Douglass friend but also his family ,his family obligations are more relevant as he may be fired from the organization and his career may be affected .Moreover we can assume that as other sources of income is not mentioned, he has none and in this case he should discuss this issue with his family for suggestions and convince them that his actions are for a greater good as his family is also a part of society and those products can harm his children too. But before taking the decision , he should first discuss this issue with relevant managers and gather support. If this doesnt work and the management turns a blind eye then he should go for external whistle blowing. 3) To what extent codes of morality and favourable systemic external condition like whistle blower protection Act, influence individuals decision and to what extent the individuals internal motivation and character influence the individuals decision?

We live in a society in which the people are afraid to speak out against the wring doers in fear of retaliation and we have seen cases where not just the person but also his family has had to suffer for his action . Hence it is important to protect an individuals interest if he/she is a whistle blower. Therefore acts and favourable systemic external conditions that protect employees from negative repercussions of whistle blowing will provide confidence to the people to come forward and expose the wrong doings in their organization or society . But the legal framework can only incentivise whistle blowing behaviour, in the end it is the internal motivation and character influence that motivates him to take up the fight and ensure that the actions of his organization does not harm the people in the society or their action rob people of their rightful property . This internal motivation is usually a result of the society and the circumstances the individual has grown up in, which shapes his vision towards right and wrong and mould his ethical personality . Hence society and family also play a huge role in influencing the decision of the whistle-blower.