Whistleblowing Essay

946 Words2 Pages

Whistleblowing is the action of an employee, who reports any unethical violations they see or come across in the firm. Employees should be encouraged to practise whistleblowing, also, organisations should encourage them to act up against unethical behavior. The Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989, is a United States federal law, whom protect federal whistleblowers who are working for the government and report misconduct. A whistleblower is a person who exposes information or activity that is illegal or unethical. The act of 1989 was made to protect these whistleblowers. Recently, three individuals were awarded with $170 million for helping investigators gather a record $16.65 billion penalty against Bank of America. Based on their action
By influencing the market falsely is unethical and wrong. That is also why their punishment was so harsh. Firms today warn their managers and employees that failing to report unethical behavior and violations by others, could get you fired. The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) reinforced its whistleblowing policies. In the corporate world, whistleblowers receive up to 25 percent of the proceeds of legal report of events against firms that misconducts. Payouts like these are becoming a lot more common. An example is Keith Edwards, whom recently received $63.9 million payout for his whistleblowing against J.P. Morgan Chase. His tip made them pay $614 to the U.S. Government for illegally accepting thousands of FHA loans and hundreds of VA loans. The IRS launched a program, designed to boost tips in large-scale cases, authorized awards of 15 to 30 percent of the amount recovered. They want people to blow the whistle on people who do not pay their taxes. IRS looks for solid information, not speculation or
Whistleblowing should be part of an ethics training which should include a message from the CEO or the owner of the business, that emphasize an ethical business practise, the code of ethics and decision making by including ethical consideration into strategic planning. By inducting an ethical business practise, the need for whistleblowers will not be needed, but there are always someone that cross the line. Therefore, by encouraging whistleblowing and supervise departmental and corporate performance concerning ethical questions. Whistleblowing is an ethical procedure when there is clear evidence of serious evidence, that will harm the public and the blower has tried to find an internal solution to effect change. The whistleblower who is associated with the unethical activity has a moral responsibility to do the right thing. Companies always know there is a possibility that the whistle will be blown, in this case the obstacle is created by knowledge that their employees stand to gain an advantage from uncovering corporate misbehaviour and thus they may be proactively looking for other people outside the organization to inform the

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