THE ETHICAL ANALYSIS
ON
THE ISSUES OF WHISTLE BLOWING
Final Report for ELEC4122 Strategic Leadership & Ethics
The university of New South Wales
Australia, Sydney
ABSTRACT:
The report presents the framework analysis on the engineering ethical issues on the whistle blowing. The whistle blowing is essential to this society to keep the justice and public safety. It is the way to fight with the corruption and public hazards. From the different ethical perspectives, we find that for the engineering who has the right and duty to the public interest the whistle blowing is also the right and duty to the engineers. It is not only for maximizing the public interests, but also for the virtues and self-realization. However these right and duty are restrained by particular circumstances. To blow the whistle successfully, there are some guidelines for the engineers to identify whether the whistle blowing is permitted or obligate. And the basic producers will help the engineers to avoid misinterpretation and hurt to themselves. At last the protection from the society should be enhanced to make the whistle blower sustainable, the professional society can help to reward the whistle blower to encourage.
The Dissertation on The Ethical Analysis on the Issues of Whistle Blowing
... killing 346 . Issues: CASE 3: WHISTLE BLOWING Definition: Whistle blowing is alerting relevant persons to some ... welfare of the public in the performance of their professional duties. 2. Engineers shall ... ENGINEERING ETHICS Moral Reasoning & Ethical Theories Engineering as Social Experimentation The ... and I.Supporting the professional and technical societies of their disciplines. Fundamental Canons ...
Table of Contents
1 4
1 INTRODUCTION: 4
2 5
2 Definition of the whistle blowing 5
3 Ethical issues 5
4 Why whistle blowing 6
4.1 WHAT IS GOODNESS? 6
4.2 UTILITARIANISM: 6
4.3 Rights: 7
4.4 DUTIES: 7
4.5 VIRTUE ETHICS: 8
4.6 SELF-REALIZATION AND SELF-INTEREST: 8
4.7 WHISTLE BLOWING IS IMPORTANT, PERMITTED AND OBLIGATE 8
5 HOW TO BLOW WHISTLE 9
5.1 GUIDELINES AND PROCEDURES 9
5.2 PROTECTION FROM THE SOCIETY 9
6 10
6 CONCLUSION: 10
1 INTRODUCTION:
The ethics is a branch of philosophy concerning with the moral principles and the rightness and wrongness of human behaviors . It is not like the law or regulations that force the people to follow, but it really provides the guidelines of the behaviors to social beings. Ethics’ regulation also depends on the specific conditions. The behaviors under specific situations affect other people and may cause quite different consequences. The ethics is regarded as the fundamental to the social behaviors and the interactions, which cannot be sufficiently regulated by laws.
The engineering ethics mainly focus on the ethical issues for engineers who produce new technology, invent and design new processes to satisfy human needs. Undoubtedly, they are deliberately changing the people’s lives and indirectly converting them to accept new behaviors. So there are many ethical issues to study, in which the issue about whistle blowing is a controversial one involving many ethical dilemmas.
According to the IEA code, the whistle blowing is defined as the unauthorized release of information, in which situations the employees will find what the company or organization is doing may include criminal behaviors, threats to public safety or unethical policies. Safety issues and design flaws are common in the field of engineering, however these problems sometimes are hidden from the public for the purposes of profits or corruptions, so in most conditions it is moral to release these information to the society to protect the public safety and justice.
The Essay on Whistle Blowing Does It Violate Company Loyalty
... to this tough ethical issue. All organizations have different views on what is acceptable behavior and practices. Blowing the whistle on your employer is ... it handles sensitive evidence or materials it receives; like the information they received prior to 9/11; so that another day like ... 9/11. Agent Rowley never intended for her memo to go public before Director Muller and the two committee members had ...
However there are many problems about blowing the whistle, such as how to identify the unethical behaviors correctly but not to make troubles, when is whistle blowing a kind of disloyalty, when is the whistle blowing permitted and when is it obligated, how to make a successful whistle blowing with minimum risk and damage, how to protect the whistle blowers.
In the first section we examine the definition of the whistle blowing. By analyzing the whistle blowing issues through the ethical framework (utilitarianism, right, duty, virtue and self-realization) we will find the importance of the whistle blowing to not only enhance the justices of the human society and maximize the public interests, but also to fulfill an internal goodness, the happiness of the individuals. Meanwhile we can get some insights into the ethical dilemmas between the loyalty to the organization, the family, the profession society and the egoism. By applying the moral frameworks we will see it is efficient to provide moral reasons, however there are still many specific factors should be considered.
After the elaboration of the whistle blowing, the report will discuss on the issues on the obligation of whistle blowing as well as the basic procedures for a successful whistles blowing. It is not simple to blow the whistle, the engineers should consider every factor to identify the risk, follow the basic procedures and protect themselves.
2 DEFINITION OF THE WHISTLE BLOWING
According to the IEA code, the unauthorized release of information is “sometimes” called “whistle blowing”. It is not the same as the making public comments or statements involving the privileged information. The information is outside the public domain, and outside a member’s area of competence.ii These information should concern with a significant moral issue, which includes criminal behaviors, threats to public safety or unethical policies.
Although the IEA code gives a simple definition of whistle blowing, but it did not provide any other specific characters to identify the whistle blowing.
The Essay on Whistle Blowing 3
The challenger disaster that took place in January 28 has led to the explosion of the shuttle itself and the death of all the crew members including the chosen teacher. A real disaster that occurred due to some wrong decisions and overriding some important information from professional employees within the company is considered a real catastrophe. Applying pressure on senior management team of the ...
Martin and Schinzinger illustrate four main parts to identify the whistle blowing,
Disclosure: information is intentionally conveyed under pressure from supervisors or others not to do so.
Topic: concerns a significant moral problem for the organization.
Agent: employee or former employee.
Recipient: to person or organization in a position to act on the problem.
So here we can define four types as external and internal whistle blowing, open and anonymous whistle blowing.
However whether the whistle blowing is justified is not defined, such as “how to distinguish between the public interest whistleblower and the malevolent employee with grudge” ? (Bill Mellor, 1991) Here we assume all the whistle blowing is justified in this report, the purpose is to protect the public safety and social justice.
3 ETHICAL ISSUES
The IEA code gives a rough definition on the whistle-blowing, and says depending on the particular circumstances the member has the responsibility to provide the unauthorized information to the those with direct authority to rectify the problem or raise the matter elsewhere. Actually there are more issues should be analyzed to understand the whistle blowing better. The way to look into the ethical issues about the whistle blowing is also the way to better understand what the whistle blowing really is.
• Why do we need the whistle blowing, how to understand the dilemmas between the whistle blowers and their loyalty to the organization, their families and public interests?
• Is the whistle blowing permitted, and is it obligate, how and when?
• How to be a successful whistle blower, how to identify the risk and minimized the damage, and the protection to the whistle blowers?
4 WHY WHISTLE BLOWING
4.1 Break the code of the ethics
The whistle blowing involves the stakeholders as the company (organization), the professional society, the family and the self-realization and interests. it will break some of the terms in the code of ethics which brings the dilemmas such as the employer should keep their royalty to the employer and company, which is the tenet in the IEA code, on the other hand as an engineers they also have to keep the promise to ensure the public safety. As whistle blower they, in some degree, are breaking the code of the ethics.
The Essay on Whistle Blowing One Whistleblowers Make
"Whistle Blowing" In "Survival Tips for Whistleblowers", a handbook printed under the auspices of the federal Government Accountability Project (GAP), whistleblowing is defined as "disclosing information that an employee reasonably believes is evidence of illegality, gross waste, gross mismanagement, abuse of power, or substantial and specific danger to public health or safety." Imagine you have ...
4.2 WHAT IS GOODNESS?
Before that we should try to understand the concept of the goodness, which is the main purpose of every human action, also the whistle blowing. The goodness can be defined as the maximum happiness. In Mill’s book ( John Stuart Mill, 2002), he emphasized the happiness can be
A. A life rich in pleasures, mixed with some inevitable pains;
B. A pattern of activities and relationships that one can affirm as valuable overall, as the way one wants one’s life to be.
Although there will be different opinions to argue what exactly the happiness is, I think the happiness come from the liberty, inherent inner love and virtues, the respect of the others, which also satisfy rational desires (Bernard Gert, 2004).
What ever a man does we will find the final purpose will come to the same point, the happiness.
4.3 UTILITARIANISM:
Utilitarianism means to produce the most amount of happiness for the most people. It should consider every stakeholder affected, it is not only about pursuing the lower cost and highest profits, but also about protecting and respecting the life and the common welfares.
Whistle blowing might be the best example to present the behaviors of utilitarianism. In most of the cases, the whistle blower will take risks to release the information about the danger most likely hidden from the public, such as the corruption, and the disasters finally turn out to be attributed to the company or project leaders who risk the public’s safety to meet the higher profits. Most of the time these information is impossible to be unveiled unless the whistle blower stand out. That is why we need the whistle blower, what is more the whistle blowing should be protected and in some degrees to be encouraged, even sometimes the whistle blower has to sacrifice.
There are two types of utilitarianisms, the act-utilitarianism and the rule-utilitarianism, the act-utilitarianism means to calculate the most goodness depending on each situation, sometimes it will permit the injustices, such as hiding the potential danger to public to avoid panics. On the other hand the rule-utilitarianism will force the people to follow the rules to maximize the public goodness without exception.
The Essay on Whistle Blowing 2
The law protecting whistle blowing should be included in all policies, of any operating government agency. This is because; information that is found as an illegal act towards the government should be reported immediately before it is leaked out to the society and chaos can be a factoring outcome of this. Whistleblower is one of many colloquial terms for individuals who exercise their right of ...
For engineering and the whistle blowing, it is not realistic to apply the rule-utilitarianism for the whistle blowers all the time, because the situations they are facing sometimes are too complicated, especially for the engineers to evaluate the safety hazards before launching the product and the threats just come from the immediate supervisor, so the act-utilitarianism is a more feasible way for the engineers to conduct their responsibility to the public. However, rule-utilitarianism can compensate the act-utilitarianism. As sometimes the whistle blowing is not only permitted, the engineers have to understand and set their rules as the moral bottom line to fulfill the utilitarianism, when the whistle blowing becomes obligate.
How to set the rules to ensure the engineers’ obligation to blow the whistle for the utilitarianism is far beyond the ethics, the law and the regulations should be involved. And all the rules should also respect the human rights.
4.4 Rights:
The basic human rights as the liberty and the life should be respected by others. This issue also come into the right of the engineering by keep the public’s safety, privacy and profits. So for the engineers who should fulfill their responsibility to protect and serve the public, to this extent they have a professional moral right to whistle blowing.
However the right is restricted by situations and some other factors. For example the engineers working in the government has the limited right by the legitimate which regulate them to keep the confidential information. And for the engineers working for private organization will be restrained by the regulation to keep the secrets. However not all of the information is confidential especially for when the engineers find the potential hazards to the public or social morality which represent the majority’s interest should be placed in the first place. So the engineers have the right to blow the whistle.
So in some conditions, they are permitted to blow the whistle because this is their right to do so, associating with their duties.
4.5 DUTIES:
Duty ethics always come with the ethics of right. We can refer to Kant and try to find the answers to how to identify whether the duty is our duty. All such specific duties come from the respect to the people’s human right. Every person has the right as moral autonomy; the respect to the person means the respect to the moral autonomy.
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The engineers actually take the duties to protect the most people’s interest and the public interests that is the respect to the public. Most of the time the whistle-blower are involved in the public’s interest, so it is also a duty for the engineers involved in to blow the whistle. What the whistle blowers do is not only for the conscience and virtues but also their duties to respect the other social being as one of the part of the society.
Meantime engineers have the duties to themselves and their family. So when intending to release the information, they have to balance the risk and make the right moves to success.
Considering all above, in some conditions it is the engineers’ duty to blow the whistle.
4.6 VIRTUE ETHICS:
Virtues in engineering can be categorized into four parts (Mike W. Martin & Roland Schinzinger 2005):
• Public-spirited virtues are focused on the good of clients and the wider public.
• Proficiency virtues are about one’s profession and the mastery of the technical skills that characterize good engineering practice.
• Teamwork virtues are about the goodness for the engineers to cooperate.
• Self-governance virtues are those necessary in exercising moral responsibility.
Whistle blowing is a good example to show the virtues. Apparently for the engineering the public spirited virtue is more important then the proficiency and teamwork virtue. In this situation, whistle blowing need the blower to show their self-governance virtue as the perseverance, honesty, and courage.
The virtue ethics is not complete to deal with all the issues of whistle blowing, and also need the other ethical theories to demonstrate that the whistle blowing permitted and obligate.
4.7 SELF-REALIZATION AND SELF-INTEREST:
To investigate the whistle blowing in this aspect, the ethical egoism cannot explain the ethics of whistle blowing fully. Because the motives of whistle blowing also include self-seeking and personal commitment. People will driven by the moral motives to meet their responsible to respect the other’s right as mention above, it also contain the self-respect and integrity.
4.8 WHO TO DECIDE
It is conceivable that whistle blowing is important to the society; it is the engineers ‘ right and also the duty to do so. And people do this not only because the ethical code and responsible, but also for the intrinsic happiness which can fulfill their self-respect, to meet the inner respect to the others.
Who to decide whether the whistle blowing is valid? The whistle blower evaluate and judge it by their inner moral guideline? The law? Or the public society? Most importantly I think the public society’s reaction should be the main standard to judge whether the action is benefiting the majority. Then the individual has the own moral autonomy to conduct the whistle blowing. It determines whether the engineer would blow the whistle even if they predict that their actions will not be acceptable by the pubic but really benefit the society.
However the right and duty are all limited by the specific circumstances. The engineers have to avoid misinterpretation of the risk, to avoid making troubles.
At last the society and the law should understand the whistle blowing and protect it by legislations.
5 HOW TO BLOW WHISTLE
5.1 GUIDELINES AND PROCEDURES
IEA code provides some basic procedures for the engineers intending to blow the whistle, it is obvious that these guidelines should be considered before making the decision to blow the whistle. It is also the engineer’s duty to identify the risk but not to make troubles or unjustified harm to the company.
But the code does not give any guidelines to identify whether the whistle is permitted or it is obligate for the engineers. Richard T. De George give five guidelines (Richard de George, 1990) can be used to identify this problem, in which theory any of the three are fulfilled the whistle blowing is permitted and it should be obligate when the five guidelines are fulfilled.
I. The firm, through its product or policy will do serious harm to the public.
II. Once the employee identifies the threat, they should report it to his direct supervisor and make their moral concern known.
III. If one’s immediate superior does nothing, the employee should exhaust the internal procedures and possibilities within the firm.
IV. The whistle blower must have the documented evidence.
V. The employee must have the good reasons to believe that by going public the necessary changes will be brought about. The chance of being successful must be worth the risk one takes and the danger to which one is exposed.
Although the guidelines are only rough rules, these can help engineers to make the decision, and also used to judge whether the whistle blowing is justified.
5.2 PROTECTION FROM THE SOCIETY
The protection for the whistle blowing is essential for the engineers, it is not hard to find the tragedy of the whistle blowers who will suffer the pains without any compensation, they will their jobs, get threatened. The ethics in the society will meltdown with the disappearance of the whistle blowing.
The protection from the government and the regulation even the law will encourage the whistle blowing, such as prevent unjust firing and harassing to whistle-blower. The systematic legislation should also be enhanced by the professional societies who can set up rewards.
6 CONCLUSION:
By ethical framework analysis, we find that the engineering has the duty to the public interest when the situations are endangering, and this sometimes will become obligate. The whistle blowing is also the right to the engineers; they are permitted to blow the whistle. It is not only for maximizing the public interests, but also for the engineers’ virtues and self-realization. However these rights and duties are restrained by particular circumstances. The engineer has to estimate the risk to him and his family and the further influence to the society. The education for the people to understand the whistle blowing and the public opinions on the whistle blowing should be investigated more.
Although the guidelines and basic procedures have their limits to apply in the practice, in order to blow the whistle successfully, the guidelines indeed can help to identify whether the whistle blowing is permitted or obligate. And the basic producers will help the engineers to avoid misinterpretation and harm to themselves. And the engineers should also develop their own ethical perspectives to the whistle blowing, set up their own moral bottom line in workplace and promote it in practice.
At last the protection from the society should be enhanced to make the whistle blower sustainable, the professional society can help to reward the whistle blower to encourage.
