Negative Effects Of Whistleblowing

Our group believes that there are several factors that contribute to poor ethical analysis, decisions, and self-destructive behavior. On an organizational and industry level, some of those factors include loose ethical standards being put into place, inadequate enforcement on the part of managers and executives, having too much opportunity to act unethically, and pressure to make profit. On a societal level, the biggest factor is the constant push to be successful, which can lead to people acting unethically to achieve that success.

2. How has the Sarbanes-Oxley Act helped to change business ethics and culture? What are the structural, governance and leadership factors that promote ethical business and behavior? Explain.

The Sarbanes-Oxley

They include things such as corporate goals, good leadership that enforces ethical decisions, and checks and balances that ensures no single person or group is able to do as they please.

3. What are the possible positive and negative effects of whistle-blowing? Explain.

There are multiple positive and negatives aspects of whistleblowing, some of them being more obvious than others. Positives include possibly stopping the unethical/illegal behavior that the whistleblower has been observing, encouraging other people who have seen unethical/illegal behavior to speak up, and in some cases a financial reward. Negatives include being labeled as a troublemaker or an untrustworthy person, the company being put into a negative spotlight, possible company collapse if the issue is severe enough, and possible retaliation against the whistleblower.

4. Per Case 4.4, Oreos, please answer Discussion Questions 1,2,3 on Page

In a majority of cases these were innocent employees who had nothing to do with the financial cover up.

6. Per Case 4.21, Andersen, please answer Discussion Question 2 on Page 300

Our group believes that the case of David Duncan highlights the fact that it doesn’t take a bad person to do unethical things, similar to what we can imagine is the case with Ms. Winters. In a lot of cases, it is simply a matter of a good person being put into a position that they’ve never been put into before, and they end up making the wrong decision. In the case of Mr. Duncan, he was put into a position where there was a great deal of money on the line, and that had a huge impact on him. We all had different things that we felt we could add to our credo as a result of Duncan’s experiences, ranging from always running ethical dilemmas through the tests we’ve learned, to always stick to the rules/laws and regulations, regardless of our personal beliefs on the