Whistle-blowers. Reasons, Outcomes and Company Loyalty Research Paper

Whistle-blowers. Reasons, Outcomes and Company Loyalty - Research Paper Example Whistle blowers generally inform the world about the unethical practices going on inside the organisation which would seek the interest of public. According to the professional ethics, an employee is expected to give more importance to the collegial loyalty; however, the code of ethics often consider the loyalty towards the public and society to be more important and emphasises more on the professionals’ moral responsibilities. The United States Code of ethics for the government employees directs them to â€Å"expose corruption wherever uncovered† and to â€Å"put loyalty to the highest moral principles and to country above loyalty to persons, party, or government† (Bok, S. â€Å"Whistle-blowing and Professional Responsibility†: 70) The objective of this project is to explain the corporate ethics along with the importance and responsibilities related with whistle blowing taking the Enron case into consideration. A few recommendations will also be suggested in this project about the responsibilities of a whistle blower and what can be the outcomes of whistle blowing. Whistleblower A whistle blower is the employee who reveals the malpractices going on in his/her organisation by disclosing the organisational secrets to the public. Notably, this kind of disclosers can be made by employees of a particular organisation not necessarily to the public, but also to the higher authorities and the concerned governmental institutions as well. Any kind of leakage of secret information generally harms an organisation and may possibly result in the termination of the employee (Bok, S. â€Å"Whistle Blowing and Professional Responsibility†). Current practices have revealed various such instances of whistle blowing among which Enron’s case has been one of the milestones in corporate history. Enron is a large-sized Houston-based company which deals in energy commodities. This company employed around 21,000 of individuals and was amongst t he world’s leading companies of natural gas, electricity, paper and pulp and communications, which was known to claim revenues of $111 billion in the year 2000 (Scribd Inc, â€Å"Business Ethics Case†). However, the company became insolvent by 2001 and intended to save billions which it owed to its investors, though by unethical means. In such situation, Sherron Watkins, the ex-vice president of the company uncovered the miserable situation in front of public after her strategies to consult with the higher authorities concerning the matter failed. In the case of Enron, Sherron Watkins understood her responsibilities towards the innocent investors who trusted the company and found her moral ethics to be more important than the corporate ethics (The Buffalo News, â€Å"Enron Whistle-Blower Says Case Shows Need for Better Safeguards†). Reasons for Whistle Blowing Organisations, in the modern day context are often witnessed to conduct malpractices which in turn are quite likely to hamper the community welfare or the interests of its stakeholders to a large extent. Knowing the malpractices of the management, when an employee perceives his/her moral responsibilities toward the society as more important than his/her company loyalty, the individual decides to blow the whistle.