I. TOPIC: Whistleblowing
Since the subject-matter of the essay is whistleblowing, there is a need of clear definition of this concept within the frameworks of this paper. As a rule whistleblowing is understood by many people as an ethical concept implying spreading information of somebody’s wrongdoings among some higher-ranked officials, so that the accused person will be sanctioned of fined (Weimer, 2014). As usual, this concept is used within the context of corporate working end employed work in some private firms and corporations (Johnson, 2003). However nowadays we can see that “whistleblowing” has become a tangible part of international policy of some countries and, thus, a specific kind of international relations. Moreover, the partial rewards that it sometimes receives only increases the instances of whistleblowing (DealBook, 2016). In major part such wide international spread became possible due to the ample and extensive spread of digital technologies and the establishment of informational field within international geopolitics (Lewis, 2001). The most vivid instances of international political whistleblowing is attributed to the widely-known ample “dumps” of concealed information by Wikileaks and its representative Edward Snowden. People are also more and more often reporting wrongdoings and the question of whether to do so or not and how to find a job afterwards is still hanging in the air (Burton, 2016). The curious point is that whistleblowing is now often deemed as a positive and accurate way of behavior. Moreover, it is even considered that whistleblowing can clean up different industries (Medland, 2015) and it has been on the increase since the 2007-2008 financial crisis ("The age of the whistleblower", 2015). However, the concept of whistleblowing is always concerned with unreasonable and mean demeanor.
3 ETHICAL ISSUES
If whistleblowing is primarily an ethical concept, we can come up with the following related concepts: creditability, friendship and split of corporate relationships, meanness.
Creditability- this is a feature of a personality, which implies the extent to which others can rely on one’s words and trust. Within the context of corporate relationships in a group of people, this human trait is of paramount importance, establishing the basis of collaboration. Trust is an extremely fragile and vulnerable thing, which cannot be easily recovered. As far as whistleblowing is concerned, this is totally ruining to the spirit of creditability among co-workers.
Friendship and split of corporate relationships are more complicated concepts, which are also the pillars of successful working collaboration. Whistleblowing is absolutely incompatible with those ethical and sociological concepts, so once it happens, friendship can never be returned and successful corporate relationships are doomed to fail.
Meanness. Following a common line of thinking, whistleblowing is always concerned with somebody’s negative personal features. Actually, it really takes much boldness to step over ethical and moral principles (enlisted above) and let someone down by whistleblowing upon him. However, this thread of thinking is only applied when talking of personal relationships among people. There are a lot of examples to assume, when whistleblowing proves to be rather a beneficial thing, making a wide range of people benefit from it. This is particularly possible when we talk about revealing some illegal activities of criminal organizations.
ETHICAL THEORIES
For our analysis we chose the following ethical theories:
Deontological ethics or deontology: an ethical theory that “judges the morality of an action” from the point of its congruence with the established rules and norms. Stemming from this position, any act of whistleblowing can be justified by its adherence to the common professional ethics or prescribed rules meanness.
Divine command theory (also known as theological voluntarism). According to this theory whether an action is moral or immoral is defined by the fact whether this way of behavior was dictated and approved by the God. Having regard to this theory, any act of whistleblowing can be considered immoral and wrong, as far as it is deemed as a personal betrayal. Because, according to religious prescriptions betrayal is the most horrible sin ever.
References
Johnson, R. (2003). Whistleblowing. Boulder: L. Rienner Publishers.
Weimer, T. (2014). Whistleblowing. Intensiv, 22(05), 254-255. http://dx.doi.org/10.1055/s-0034-1389576
Lewis, D. (2001). Whistleblowing at work. London: Athlone.
Burton, L. (2016). What J.P. Morgan’s ‘Worst Nightmare’ Thinks About Whistleblowing. WSJ. Retrieved 9 June 2016, from http://blogs.wsj.com/moneybeat/2015/02/11/what-j-p-morgans-worst-nightmare-thinks-about-whistleblowing/
Medland, D. (2015). A Consumer’s Tool Kit: From “Whistleblowing” To Class Action. Forbes. Retrieved 9 June 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/site/dinamedland/2015/10/10/a-consumers-tool-kit-from-whistleblowing-to-class-action/
The age of the whistleblower. (2015). The Economist. Retrieved 9 June 2016, from http://www.economist.com/news/business/21679455-life-getting-better-those-who-expose-wrongdoing-companies-continue-fight
DealBook,. (2016). Big Rewards Could Trigger More Whistle-Blowing. NewYorkTimes. Retrieved 11 June 2016, from http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/08/09/big-rewards-could-trigger-more-whistleblowing/?_r=0
