Pros And Cons Of Whistleblowing

“Whistle blowing is a disclosure by an employee or professional of confidential information which relates to some danger, fraud or other illegal or unethical conduct connected with the work place, be it of the employer or his fellow employees.” Based on the facts read, Delectables Corp. is participating in serious unethical behavior that in the long term can hurt both the company and its customers. Before deciding how best to proceed questions such as these come to mind: “Am I blowing the whistle for the right reasons? Am I ready to be known as a whistleblower? Am I prepared to live with the consequences?” I would think through my decision by weighing the pros and cons of whistle blowing. There are numerous risks associated with this decision.

The government should play a huge role in assuring food safety in the food industry. Government agencies are responsible for setting food safety standards, conducting inspections, ensuring that standards are met, and maintaining a strong enforcement program to deal with those who do not comply with standards. State and federal inspectors do not require the peanut industry to inform the government of salmonella contamination in its plants. The government simply doesn’t know what’s going on in these plants. The state of Georgia on the other hand is extremely underfunded and only has 60 inspectors to monitor 16,000 food businesses. The state of Georgia needs to tighten its food safety net. Georgia should prevent Delectables from selling contaminated products, otherwise a salmonella breakout will lead the state to an even bigger revenue deficit. The Government should fund Georgia so they can hire more inspectors to better handle these problems. It is also important for the government to stress the importance of social responsibility to companies like Delectables. As we saw in the Malden Mills case from class, Aaron Feurerstein, CEO of Malden Mills, was a patriot for social responsibility. He felt that it was his duty to take care of his employees to rebuild Malden Mills for the City of Lawrence. Delectables needs to make a commitment to work with employees and their families as well as the local community and society as a whole. Self-regulation is voluntary and is typically framed as a socially responsible industry practice that has consumer welfare as its central feature. A well-grounded self-regulatory system has distinct benefits: it conserves government resources and is less adversarial, more flexible, and timelier than government regulation. Risk occurs when promises are not fulfilled because of weak standards or ineffective enforcement, allowing companies to continue to serve their own interests at the expense of consumers. In the Delectables situation it is