Abstract
Whistleblowing is one of the most important ethical issues in the workplace. There are many ethical implications related to the whistleblowing, but still, it is respected and highly suggested to preserve the office modesty and workplace values. There are both positive as well as negative aspects of whistleblowing. Almost everyone is effected 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. The minorities and immigrants also face serious consequences which result in difficulties in spending their life without a proper job. The LGBTQ, middle class and the racially weak communities are highly affected by the behavior of the employers, management and the corporations. Whistleblowing costs anyone very badly. The personal life of the media and other people is discussed which results in embarrassments and serious problems. The sociologist and analysts have properly studied and discussed this case and finalized that it should be practiced and appreciated in the workplace for maintaining the office environment, less informal and more formal, free of politics and lack of problems at all.
Keywords: Whistleblowing, LGBTQ, minority, women.
Whistleblowing
Introduction
Whistleblowing is a referred to gaining the attention of an individual from any wrongdoing which is happening or has happened in the past. The overarching aims of the whistleblowing technique and whistleblowers are to eliminate the misconducts and wrongdoings from the workplace. Everyone gets affected because of whistleblowing in both positive as well as negative ways. There are many ethical connotations associated with the whistleblowing, but still, it is appreciated and highly recommended to maintain the office decorum and workplace culture. It’s highly helpful in increasing productivity, but sometimes its overuse or unnecessary usage effects women, immigrants, LGBTQ and young employees. The women face this issue in a completely different way which is discussed underneath. The LGBTQs are treated with discrimination and the highly offensive way 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 the 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 the ethical behavior practice in the workplace. It affects both the whistleblower as well as the organization entirely. Since it is an issue, so it is responsible for the rise of some problems. Among some positive and negative aspects of whistleblowing, there is the fact that people get to know about the environment of the workplace.
In respect to the advantages and positive aspects of whistleblowing, exposure to the unethical behavior of an employee is one of the most helpful results of it. A whistleblower has an essential role in the government institutes as well as businesses. In any organization, whistleblowing is that the employer has a demand for honesty from his employees. On the other side, the employee’s teams and the society also require honesty from the employer as well as the organization. The 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 which 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, the society also gets safeguarded from an individual’s negligence. The exposure to the unethical behavior is also highly noticed and results in the 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 which the whistleblower wanted on the certain issue could result in the downside. The whistleblower’s prospect and his career could be ruined if the organization is not supportive of his actions. The overall world will only consider whistleblower as a hero for explaining a corrupt and unethical behavior 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 will be questionable, and people will avoid him, and he would face a miserable workplace social boycotted. A whistleblower would reveal a truth which would be hidden for an extended period. Since the media groups are always in seek of the story so, 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 sector 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 small period, but still, his next life becomes difficult because of the media and other social problems.
Whistleblowing is in 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 levels that is the whistleblowing an ethical practice or not, and their dizzying philosophies had made the analysts and sociologists finalize that the whistleblowing is entirely legal and ethical. The act of whistleblowing causes an acute conflict among the personal, organizational and the 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 concludes that the whistleblower is unethical, disobedient, disloyal, and grass for them (Rehg, 2008). On the other side, most of the equal employees and team members observe it as a heroic act, and they confirm it as an action for the benefit of them as well as the suffering ones.
According to the common public, whistleblowing is highly accepted and is counted in a valued act. Whistleblowing side effects are extremely long lasting and highly damaging if not understood positively. A whistleblower mostly loses a lot much at the beginning in which 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 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 as well as international levels which caused the highly practical impact on the profiles of the well-known top performers of the business, healthcare and media associations. Recently there was a health care 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 the community leaders must have to take care of this fact and would ultimately make things as normal as possible. It will help the whistleblower to maintain his job rather than being terminated or change of the positions.
The employers and the corporations directly target everyone who does the whistleblowing. The men are equally treated, but there are some groups which were pressurized because of their identities and their financial statuses. The women, LGBTQ, middle class and the minorities are seriously affected by the behavior of the employers, management and the corporations (Carter & Scalia, 1996). The analysts and the sociologists have claimed that in the time when terrorism is highly practiced in the workplace, it is rarely practiced to find someone who is whistleblowing against the wrongdoers. The people who address the issues to the open public in the form of whistleblowing are mostly terminated as a reward for acting as a whistleblower. Whenever a woman is found a whistleblower, she is associated with their ethical virtue. The ethics are the only reason which let the women step forward and to explain their concerns. They use to act against the only problems which are unethical, illegal and the actions which make their time challenging to pass in the workplace.
Currently, in the United States, a lot 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 which are supposed to provide a shield to the whistleblowers from any retaliation. The Occupational safety and health administration is currently facing some issues regarding the protection of the employees who have practiced whistleblowing (Peters, 2011). Almost more than three thousand whistleblowing complaints are received to 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. The experts have a claimed that the women in the workplace could be expected more concerning the men to perform the 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 performs the whistleblowing, they are unable to survive in the environment. The government of United States protects the LGBTQ by 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 life, gatherings, and workplaces. Workplace discrimination should not be practiced and must be eliminated in the workplace (Carter & Scalia, 1996). The situation in which the upper layers perform the discrimination practice, the 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 to do the whistleblowing. In the situation of whistleblowing, the discrimination practice is highly increased. For this purpose, the government has made the rules which forbid the discrimination practice inside an organization.
Another most important and always highlighted community which is already in stressful situations and after the whistleblowing, they would not be able to survive in the environment. They are the middle-class people who are always seeking for the better jobs and career enhancements. They mostly avoid the whistleblowing but when the problems ae severe, most of the people find the last choice of whistleblowing and practice it so that the hard time could be over. They don’t have enough courage to lose the jobs because of highly tough and scheduled financial lifecycle. Whenever a middle-class individual is found involved in the whistleblowing, he is discouraged of his work and the hurdles are being created which eventually result in his loss of the job.
The immigrants who live in the United States are also highly victimized by the wrongdoers. They always have difficulties in finding as well as sustaining a job. Their career development process is very low as compared to the citizens of United States. Since an immigrant don’t have an answer to the question of their identity which 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 the status which results in their inability to speak about the issues they are facing in the workplace. Since the court of California has passed the rights of immigrants at the workplace, society and their financial as well as social lifestyle. Whistleblowing is a serious issue for the low wages workers in the United States. They are unable to pursue the legal remedies which could result in their inability to stay in the United States. The consequences could be worse than comparatively. The employers mostly perform the workers’ rights violation on the immigrants who were in the past not resolvable but now because of the strict government policies, the courts appreciate the whistleblowing, and the employers and higher management are behaving 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 the priority basis that asks yourself a set of questions which would realize that if the whistleblowing is required either or not. Most of the people have problems with their work always and everywhere (Estlund et al., 2005). They would be a cause of unnecessary disturbance for everyone including their team, employer, and the organization. For this purpose, initially think about the fact that either you will be happy somewhere else if this would job is taken from you.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, it can be explained that the whistleblowing should be practiced if the workplace ethics are not appropriately followed by the employer or the system in which the operations are being conducted. Whistleblowing can be used to control any unethical activity which is being practiced in the workplace. Everyone, including the employer and the managerial layers, must know that which activities and practices would be immoral as well as ethical. In the case of unethical activities what possible actions an individual should take. There are some positive as well as negative consequences of the 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 becoming a whistleblower. The immigrants, racially different, LGBTQ and other minorities of the United States are if found in the whistleblowing practice; their status is questioned and criticized as well as they face serious discrimination. It is highly requested to think before practicing the 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.
