KNS

1. Whistle-Blowing
Prof. Kumar Neeraj Sachdev
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

2. Issues Across Professions
• Ethical Theories
• Ethical Codes for Various Professions
• Employer-Employee Relation
• Whistle Blowing
• Women and Family Issues
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3. Whistle-Blowing – The Roots
“There have always been informers, or snitches, who
reveal information to enrich themselves or to get
back at others. However, whistle-blowers, are
righteous people who expose some wrongdoing,
often at great personal risk. The term whistle-blower
was first applied to government employees who go
public with complaints of corruption or
mismanagement. It is now used in connection with
similar activities in the private sector.”
- John R. Boatright
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4. The Condition
“The whistle-blower recognizes that he or she cannot
tolerate the violation of morality or the public trust
and feels obliged actually to do something about it.
The biographies of most whistle-blowers do not
make happy reading, but their very existence and
occasional success is ample testimony to the
interlocking obligations of the corporation, the
individual, and society.”
Robert C. Solomon
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5. The Perception
“Indeed, perhaps the most singularly
important result of the emergence of
professional ethics in the public forum has
been to highlight such individuals and give
renewed respectability to what their
employers wrongly perceive as nothing but a
breach of loyalty.” Robert C. Solomon
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6. Whistle-Blowing – The Definition
“Whistle-Blowing is the voluntary release of
nonpublic information, as a moral protest, by
a member or former member of an
organization outside the normal channels of
communication to an appropriate audience
about illegal and/or immoral conduct in the
organization or conduct in the organization
that is opposed in some significant way to the
public interest.” John R. Boatright
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7. Employer-Employee Relation
• The relationship of an employer and an
employee is based upon the contractual
relation of principal and agent.
• The relationship of principal and agent
demands that agent works for the benefit of
principal.
• And the agent is expected to be loyal as per
the terms and conditions of employment.
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8. Loyalty
• Loyalty is a virtue of being faithful in one’s
support to somebody or something.
• Virtue is generally conceived of as a character
trait; a quality; a habit; a disposition or an
attitude.
• Greek Philosophers identify virtuous life with
good human life.
• Loyalty is a well-regarded virtue of an
employee in a workplace.
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9. Employee Loyalty
• An employee is supposed to act in place of his
employer because the employee in a way is
employed for that purpose.
• It implies that an employee ought to protect the
interests of his employer in the organization.
• But a conflict in perceptions of employer-
employee or employee-employee with regard to
the welfare of organization or public interest
may lead to a moral protest that is better known
as whistle blowing.
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10. The Loyal Agent Argument
• Since an employee is expected to protect the
interests of an employer, a breach of trust of an
employer is regarded as breach of loyalty.
• Are whistle blowers disloyal agents?
• The answer is No.
• An employee, for example, an engineer is not
supposed to overlook defects in the products or
services for the sake of people in the organization or
profit to the organization. In fact, he is truly loyal to
register a complaint first in the organization and, if
required, to the appropriate agency outside the
boundaries of organization.
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11. True Meaning of Loyalty
• Merely following orders and not rocking the
boat is not the true meaning of loyalty.
• Loyalty means commitment to the true
interests of the organization.
• And in the larger picture, true interests of the
organization ought to coincide with the
interests of the society / the nation / the
world / the planet earth.
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12. Loyalty and Good Human Life
To cultivate loyalty as a virtue in whistle
blowing, if necessitated, ought to be viewed
as a concrete instance of a determined way to
live a good human life.
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13. Conditions for Justified Whistle-Blowing
• Is the situation of sufficient moral importance
to justify whistle-blowing?
• Do you have all the facts and have you
properly understood their significance?
• Have all internal channels and steps short of
whistle-blowing been exhausted?
• What is the best way to blow the whistle?
• What is my responsibility in view of my role in
the organization?
• What are the chances for success?
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14. Concluding Remark
An employee, therefore, ought to practice the
virtue of loyalty and if required blow the
whistle keeping in mind the true interests of
the organization.
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15. Thank you.
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