Whistleblowing & Ethical Dilemmas: Unethical Practices & Undesirable Choices - Essay Sample

Introduction

Whistleblowing refers to drawing the attention of an authority figure or the public towards a given occurrence. The occurrence is mainly misconduct, wrongdoing, negligence, assault and unethical practice in the private or public sector (Malek, 2015). On the other hand, Ray (2017) argued that ethical dilemma refers to a moral situation where a choice must be made between two undesirable alternatives. Precisely, an ethical dilemma is a conflict that arises between two or more choices where, no maters what one does, some aspects of ethics much be breached. This there means that one must analyze the alternatives and the repercussions to come up with an informed decision.

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There are a lot of ethical dilemmas associated with whistleblowing. Malek (2015) argued that whistleblowers have to take care of ethics since it involves an individual's deeper understanding that the actions that individuals or organizations are undertaking are damaging and do not conform to the rules and regulations. Virtues like courage are required for whistleblowing since emerging out firm for certain principles may be punishing at times (Ray, 2017).

One of the indicators, whether an individual will find it easy to undertake whistleblowing role, is determined by whether they have empirical evidence against the wrongdoers. Malek (2015) argued that people will always come forward to whistleblow if they feel that they have legitimate evidence against the committed crime. Though, if they are aware of the misconduct but feel that they cannot prove it or they are not sure whether the evidence they have is a legitimate one, then they will remain quiet (Malek, 2015). This may make whistleblower have a feeling that their actions can result in a criminal offense hence causing an ethical dilemma if the ongoing misconduct is harmful and damaging but there are no hopes that such abuses may end without whistleblowing.

Because most governments have clear lines of authority and well-defined rules and regulation, individuals who witness wrongdoing in their workplaces need to first follow the mechanisms that their organizations have put in place since such organizations provide a conducive atmosphere for better solutions (Malek, 2015). That means that there is a need for one to begin with the immediate boss and climb up the chain of command. For instance, if a councilperson has issues with city staff then it is recommended that they move to the city manager. This, therefore, means that before whistleblowing is done publicly by an employee in their organization, then they should try to make use of the organizations' internal mechanisms (Ray, 2017). This move ensures that the employee first and foremost protects the image of the organization and those of the employees as well. This denies the competitors of the organization the opportunity of taking advantages of further destroying the reputation of the organization for their gains

It, therefore, goes without saying that whistleblowing is common practice both in the public and private sectors. Ray (2017) argued that whistleblowing it is a task that involves persons with much courage in exposing the wrongdoings such as assault, negligence, abuse, misconduct and unethical practices in both private and public sectors. However, a person should first follow the right protocol before they whistleblow (Ray, 2017). Whistleblowing is viewed as an example of an ethical dilemma where persons perceived by their colleagues as traitors and in most cases, whistleblowers are subjected to retaliation to the level of losing their jobs.

References

Malek, J. (2015). To Tell or Not to Tell? The Ethical Dilemma of the Would-Be Whistleblower. Accountability In Research, 17(3), 115-129. DOI: 10.1080/08989621003791929

Ray, S. (2017). Whistleblowing and Organizational Ethics. Nursing Ethics, 13(4), 438-445. DOI: 10.1191/0969733006ne882oa