Ethical Issues Of Whistleblowing

Whistle-blowing can be defined many different ways. For example, from page 384 in the book, 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. For a simpler explanation of the term whistle-blowing, Merriam-Webster defines the term as, an employee who brings wrongdoing by an employer or other employees to the attention of a government or law enforcement agency and who is commonly vested by statute with rights and remedies for retaliation.

The act of whistle-blowing is an ethical issue that all employees have the right to. Whether they decide to make the corrupt information known publicly or anonymously, the information they provide can protect everyone involved. The ethical and moral sides of whistle-blowing can go both ways. In order to protect the customers, patients, or consumers of the harmful products the companies are offering, employees that have morals and feel the need to make the truth be known have an ethical responsibility to do so. Issues of being a whistle-blower are more controversial than the responsibilities of the employees doing so. When a whistle-blower takes action, they expose information from their company that it not meant to be public. They basically turn their backs away from their company and colleagues by revealing the truth. When surveying these issues, an employee who is torn by exposing information or keeping silent must decide whether it is more ethical to stay loyal to their organization or to the organization's

When looking at that, there are some questions to be asked, did Roger Boisjoly act ethically as a whistle-blower? Was Boisjoly treated fairly by Morton Thiokol? Could the managers of Morton Thiokol have done anything differently? To start, did Boisjoly act ethically? In my opinion, Boisjoly did all that he could to prevent the launch of the Challenger. He informed his managers of the defect and the probability of an explosion. He consulted all internal channels and had evidence. Sadly, his managers ultimately ignored him and went ahead with the launch. As we know, that resulted in an explosion as predicted. When outside sources questioned Boisjoly about the incident, he was truthful and told them all of his predictions and gave evidence. Next, was Boisjoly treated fairly by Morton Thiokol? To me, Boisjoly's employers did not give him the respect he deserved. He found a problem and informed them of it. The managers of Thiokol did not listen and it resulted in a loss. Later, after Boisjoly blew the whistle, his work environment changed and he was treated differently. Lastly, could the managers of Thiokol have made different decisions? Yes, the Morton Thiokol managers should have researched the problem and found an answer before going ahead with the launch. The had been informed that there was a malfunction and if NASA decided to go ahead with the launch it could potentially