How
can Whistle-Blowing constitute ethical behavior in the working environment?
By
Walter Sisulu University, Research Resource Centre, Nelson Mandela Drive Campus, Private Bag X 1, Mthatha, 5117, Eastern Cape, South Africa.
Employers in working places demand complete conformity and loyalty from their employees. Most employees do what their employers require and some employees do not comply with such a demand. Given the indispensable services to society performed by many compliant employees is often merited. What can and should employees or employers do when their sense of personal, or social morality is at odds with their organization’s rules and regulations? Whistle blowing is an important tool in fighting wrongful practices in the working environment. Generally speaking, there is a virtue in whistle blowing that ought to be rewarded and protected. However, the scope for such a topic is thus broader. It includes first different definitions of the concept ‘whistle-blowing’. Secondly, it includes different motivations on why do we have to blow the whistle in the first place? And finally, why is it so common that whistle blowing results in retaliation?