Abstract
Whistleblowing is one of the most important ethical issues in the workplace. There are many ethical implications related to whistleblowing, but it is still respected and highly recommended to preserve the office’s modesty and workplace values. There are both positive and negative aspects of whistleblowing. Almost everyone is affected in an entirely different way after the whistleblowing. The men are criticized, and their careers are ruined. The women lose their jobs, dignity and confidence mostly. Minorities and immigrants also face serious consequences, which result in difficulties in spending their lives without a proper job. The LGBTQ, middle class and racially weak communities are highly affected by the behaviour of employers, management and corporations. Whistleblowing costs anyone very badly. The personal lives of the media and other people are discussed, which results in embarrassment and serious problems. The sociologist and analysts have properly studied and discussed this case and finalized that it should be practised and appreciated in the workplace for maintaining the office environment, making it less informal and more formal, free of politics, and lacking problems at all.
Introduction
Whistleblowing is a term that refers to gaining the attention of an individual from any wrongdoing that is happening or has happened in the past. The overarching aim of the whistleblowing technique and whistleblowers is to eliminate misconduct and wrongdoings in the workplace. Everyone gets affected by whistleblowing in both positive and negative ways. There are many ethical connotations associated with whistleblowing, but it is still appreciated and highly recommended that the office decorum and workplace culture be maintained. It’s highly helpful in increasing productivity, but sometimes its overuse or unnecessary usage affects women, immigrants, LGBTQ and young employees. Women face this issue in a completely different way, which is discussed below. The LGBTQs are treated with discrimination and highly offensive ways if they are found to be whistleblowers. The immigrants are questioned on their status if they perform the act of whistleblowing. The analysts have provided some reasons through which whistleblowing could be positively considered for schooling as well as creating change in the employees. The main aim of the paper is to discuss the positive and negative aspects of whistleblowing as well as its effects on different cultural and social groups.
Discussion
Whistleblowing is a highly sensitive and hot topic in ethical behaviour practice in the workplace. It affects both the whistleblower and the organization entirely. Since it is an issue, it is responsible for the rise of some problems. Among some positive and negative aspects of whistleblowing is the fact that people get to know about the environment of the workplace.
With respect to the advantages and positive aspects of whistleblowing, exposure to unethical behaviour by an employee is one of the most helpful results. A whistleblower has an essential role in government institutes and businesses. In any organization, whistleblowing is when the employer has a demand for honesty from his employees. On the other hand, the employees’ teams and society also require honesty from the employer as well as the organization. An active whistleblowing culture is highly helpful in any organization for the promotion of clear and effective communication and a good, understandable and transparent structure. There are several situations that could be exemplified here. For example, a hospital hires a negligent employee, and a reasonable and responsible employee conveys this issue to the authorities. This helps the hospital to handle this grim situation and protects itself from any unnecessary lawsuits. Furthermore, society also gets safeguarded from an individual’s negligence. The exposure to unethical behaviour is also highly noticed and results in criminal investigations, civil lawsuits, media attention and organizational action towards the issue.
The negative aspects of whistleblowing practice result in some problems. The diminished career prospects are the topmost. In this situation, the attention that the whistleblower wanted on a certain issue could result in the downside. The whistleblower’s prospects and his career could be ruined if the organization is not supportive of his actions. The overall world will only consider a whistleblower as a hero for explaining corrupt and unethical behaviour of his corporation’s secrets as well as industry practices (Carter & Scalia, 1996). This will be an exact appreciation which will end very soon, and the whistleblower will become a blacklisted candidate in his industry. Although the American laws would protect him inside the country, his loyalty towards the organization would be questionable, and people would avoid him, and he would face a miserable workplace social boycott. A whistleblower would reveal a truth which would be hidden for an extended period. Since the media groups are always seeking the story, they will dig deeper into the lives of the people who are involved in the case raised and their past relationships with the whistleblower (Peters, 2011). Most of the whistleblowing actions in the military, private, public and government sectors are done at the end of the career in the form of interviews and secret conversations. This helps the employee to become safe after a short period, but his next life becomes difficult because of the media and other social problems.
Whistleblowing is overall a valuable tool in any firm’s complete governance policies. It helps the employees to maintain the ethical safety of the workplace. The misconducts are eliminated, and the protection of the profits and reputation are maintained. Many people have carried out the conversation on the international level about whether whistleblowing is an ethical practice or not, and their dizzying philosophies have made the analysts and sociologists finalize that whistleblowing is entirely legal and ethical. The act of whistleblowing causes an acute conflict among the personal, organizational and societal spheres, which are mostly long-lasting and never ends. The whistleblower is perceived in two different ways in any organization. The employer and the organizational reputation conclude that the whistleblower is unethical, disobedient, disloyal, and grass for them (Rehg, 2008). On the other hand, most of the equal employees and team members observe it as a heroic act, and they confirm it as an action for their own benefit as well as that of the suffering ones.
According to the common public, whistleblowing is highly accepted and is counted as a valued act. Whistleblowing side effects are extremely long-lasting and highly damaging if not understood positively. A whistleblower mostly loses a lot at the beginning, and the most prominent thing is the trust of his employer. After whistleblowing, the dehumanizing environment is automatically prepared for the whistleblower, and he is forced to live in the most miserable conditions. Whistleblowing needs proper confidence and a way to move forward with information that should be authentic and would at least be helpful in changing the person who is misconducting, or he could be targeted. There are some cases on the national and international levels that have had a highly practical impact on the profiles of the well-known top performers of the business, healthcare, and media associations. Recently, there was a healthcare scandal, which was a high-profile case and got excellent publicity among the common people. Most of the people are disfranchised from their positions only because of the whistleblowing on misconduct. The social, public and community leaders must take care of this fact and ultimately make things as normal as possible. It will help the whistleblower to maintain his job rather than being terminated or changing the position.
The employers and the corporations directly target everyone who does the whistleblowing. The men are treated equally, but there are some groups that are pressured because of their identities and their financial statuses. Women, LGBTQ, the middle class and minorities are seriously affected by the behaviour of employers, management and corporations (Carter & Scalia, 1996). Analysts and sociologists have claimed that in a time when terrorism is highly practised in the workplace, it is rarely practised to find someone who is whistleblowing against the wrongdoers. The people who address the issues to the public in the form of whistleblowing are mostly terminated as a reward for acting as a whistleblower. Whenever a woman is found to be a whistleblower, she is associated with their ethical virtue. Ethics is the only reason that lets women step forward and explain their concerns. They act against the only unethical and illegal problems and the actions that make their time challenging to pass in the workplace.
Currently, in the United States, a large number of people lose their jobs either intentionally because of poor workplace ethical management or because of termination due to whistleblowing. There are many federal protections that are supposed to shield whistleblowers from any retaliation. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is currently facing some issues regarding the protection of employees who have practised whistleblowing (Peters, 2011). Almost three thousand whistleblowing complaints have been received from them since 2015, and they have insufficient staff, which is not enough to operate all of them. This ratio is a problem for the overall program of controlling the issues to the whistleblowers. Experts have claimed that women in the workplace could expect more than men to perform whistleblowing.
The LGBTQ also faces sensitive situations in the workplace, which results in their whistleblowing. The LGBTQs are already affected by the discrimination problem and the social boycotts, and in a workplace, if they unintentionally or intentionally perform whistleblowing, they are unable to survive in the environment. The government of the United States protects the LGBTQ community through LGBT workplace discrimination protections, but it is highly effective inside the walls of any workplace. Initially, the people of every society have accepted the LGBTQs officially, but still, they are not able to openly welcome them in their social lives, gatherings, and workplaces. Workplace discrimination should not be practised and must be eliminated in the workplace (Carter & Scalia, 1996). In the situation in which the upper layers perform the discrimination practice, life at the workplace of an LGBTQ becomes profoundly miserable, which results in either disheartening from work and leaving the job without any official reason or whistleblowing. In the case of whistleblowing, the practice of discrimination is highly increased. For this purpose, the government has made rules that forbid discrimination inside an organization.
Another most important and always highlighted community is one that is already in stressful situations and, after the whistleblowing, would not be able to survive in the environment. They are middle-class people who are always seeking better jobs and career enhancements. They mostly avoid whistleblowing, but when the problems are severe, most people find the last choice of whistleblowing and practice it so that the hard time can be over. They don’t have enough courage to lose their jobs because of the highly tough and scheduled financial lifecycles. Whenever a middle-class individual is found involved in whistleblowing, he is discouraged from his work, and hurdles are created, which eventually result in the loss of his job.
The immigrants who live in the United States are also highly victimized by the wrongdoers. They always have difficulties finding and sustaining a job. Their career development process is very low compared to that of the citizens of the United States. Since an immigrant doesn’t have an answer to the question of their identity, it results in their dead silence in front of the cops or the wrongdoers (Bjørkelo, 2013). The immigrant whistleblower doesn’t have the answer to their identity and status, which results in their inability to speak about the issues they are facing in the workplace. Since the court of California passed the rights of immigrants in the workplace, society, and their financial and social lifestyles, whistleblowing has become a serious issue for low-wage workers in the United States. They are unable to pursue legal remedies, which could result in their own inability to stay in the United States. The consequences could be worse than comparatively. The employers mostly perform workers’ rights violations against immigrants, which were in the past not resolvable, but now, because of the government’s strict policies, whistleblowing is appreciated by the courts and the employers, and higher management is able to behave effectively in a positive way.
It is always advised to ensure the circumstances before acting on the several numbers of situations, any person who is about to do the whistleblowing, he must initially know about the organizational culture, consequences and the other factors in which the job security is on the top most list. The personal code should also be considered on a priority basis, and you should ask yourself a set of questions that would determine whether whistleblowing is required or not. Most people have problems with their workplace everywhere (Estlund et al., 2005). They would cause necessary disturbance for everyone, including their team, employer, and the organization. For this purpose, initially think about the fact that you will be happy somewhere else if this job is taken from you.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, it can be explained that whistleblowing should be practised if workplace ethics are not followed properly by the employer or the system in which the operations are being conducted. Whistleblowing can be used to control any kind of unethical activity that is practised in the workplace. Everyone, including the employer and the managerial layers, must know which activities and practices would be unethical as well as ethical. In the case of unethical activities, what possible actions should an individual take? There are some positive and negative consequences of whistleblowing. The men are directly affected, and their jobs are found at risk because of their whistleblowing in the organization. The women also faced serious unethical issues, which resulted in them becoming whistleblowers. If immigrants, racially different, LGBTQs and other minorities of the United States are found in the whistleblowing practice, their status is questioned and criticized as well, and they face serious discrimination. It is highly requested to think before practising whistleblowing because it would result in ruining the career and losing the job as well.
References
Bjørkelo, B. (2013). Workplace bullying after whistleblowing: Future research and implications. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 28(3), 306-323.
Carter, R. L., & Scalia, J. F. (1996). Employment Practices Liability Insurance. HUMAN RESOURCES PROFESSIONAL-NEW YORK-, 9, 18-21.
Estlund, C. (2005). Rebuilding the Law of the Workplace in an Era of Self-Regulation. Colum. L. Rev., 105, 319.
Peters, K., Luck, L., Hutchinson, M., Wilkes, L., Andrew, S., & Jackson, D. (2011). The emotional sequelae of whistleblowing: Findings from a qualitative study. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 20(19‐20), 2907-2914.
Rehg, M. T., Miceli, M. P., Near, J. P., & Van Scotter, J. R. (2008). Antecedents and outcomes of retaliation against whistleblowers: Gender differences and power relationships. Organization Science, 19(2), 221-240.
