COE 202 taking sides final 2 PDF

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This is the essay used during the debate assignment where students are separted into groups and are given a side to debate. This paper is about whistleblowing. This course was taught by Nathan Slife...

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Thomas Lester Professor Nathan Slife COE 202 Sec 1006 8 November 2015 Taking Sides Position Paper 2 Final Introduction There comes a time when a company may resort to doing unethical and immoral things in secret to get the job done, and this sometimes may call for a whistle to be blown. The term whistleblowing means to expose the wrongdoings of a corporation or governmental bureaucracy. For instance, if a company were to start laundering money, one of the employees might not feel good about the situation and eventually blow the whistle on the whole thing. The debate of whether or not doing so violates company loyalty stems from the ethical dilemma that the employee is in. My Position The side I take in this debate is: yes, “…that although blowing the whistle is often justified, it does involve dissent, accusation, and a break of loyalty to the employer” (Bok, 174). The reason for this is because if someone is ever hired for a job, odds are that the employer did so because they trust you to do the job and to be loyal both them and your duties as their employee. No employer ever hires someone with the intention of having their employee put the

company under the bus someday; they trust them to be loyal. Most companies even work under the Whistleblower Protection Act which helps to prevent such instances of breached loyalty between an employee and their company/employer. One of the most notable examples is when Edward Snowden, an American privacy activist and former CIA employee, blew the whistle on the NSA and their violation of America’s privacy. Snowden leaked classified information on global surveillance programs that the NSA used to spy on American citizens for the good of preventing any possible heinous crimes, usually terrorist acts. The main reason someone blows the whistle is to put a stop to illegal actions by a company because it’s bad or not morally correct, and it helps them clear their conscious about being a part of the situation. But doing so can result in substantial repercussions. These include: “great stress, sometimes ill health, career loss, financial ruin, and/or loss of friends and family. Worst of all is the universal suspicion of anyone who can be characterized as a ‘snitch’ or a ‘tattletale’” (Bok, 174). Is all of that worth it? If one feels so strongly about outing their workplace, it might be better to blow the whistle internally by going to the boss directly and ask them about the situation rather than externally doing so by telling the public. Doing this could possibly help the company realize that what they are doing is wrong, and in turn, stop the acts by themselves. This could save the whistleblower a ton of backlash. Opposing Position

For those who disagree with my position, their reasoning is that “putting a stop to illegal or unethical company activities may be the highest type of loyalty an employee can display” (Larmer, 174), meaning that a whistle blow might help a company for the better by saving them from public disgrace. Larmer says that “…employees possess prima facie duties of loyalty and confidentiality to their employers and that whistleblowing cannot be justified except on the basis of a higher duty to the public good” (184). In terms of the Edward Snowden case, although he had a duty to not disclose such information, his whistleblowing was justified because it was of more importance that the public know what was going on; he was loyal to his fellow citizens. Another thing is that they believe that “there can be no issue of whistleblowing and employee loyalty, since the employee has no duty to be loyal to his employer” (Duska, 184). This is because companies are not the kinds of things which are proper objects of loyalty. To further explain, humans are deserving of loyalty, whereas companies are not. An example to show that whistleblowing, more in the sense of snitching, would be that of a drunk driver. Suppose two friends are out drinking, and one of them decides to drive home drunk as the night is coming to a close. If the other friend were to stop them from driving by telling other people, an employee, or even the cops as an extreme measurement, he would be showing loyalty to his friend by possibly saving his life from a devastating car crash. Refutation of Opposing Position A whistle blow is especially a breach of loyalty in cases where a company has an employee sign a nondisclosure agreement to prevent said whistle blow. That contract signifies

your loyalty to the company by saying that you will not blow the whistle. Blowing the whistle is exactly like calling a foul on your own team. It’s like turning your back on them. Using a football game as an example, if one were to throw a flag on their own team, it would set them back and do nothing to benefit the team. Doing this would only create hostility and distrust between them and the rest of the team. When people hire someone, the least they can do is show some type of loyalty to their employer since they were nice enough to provide them with a job. If someone gets a job and decides to blow the whistle on the company and everyone else involved, they are ruining a lot of people’s lives, not just their own. In cases where one person blows the whistle on another person rather than a company as a whole, “often both the whistle-blower and the individual involved in the wrongdoing are treated as suspect” (Bok, 175). Position Summary So all in all, blowing the whistle on your own company for unethical actions or practices is a clear breach of both your company’s and boss’ loyalty; it is not your place to do so. Bring up your knowledge of the situation to the higher ups before going about it your own way. The aftermath is too serious, and you might be the one to blame for it all. Response to Feedback

When responding to feedback from my classmates, I had changed certain words to those that they suggested to help make the sentence flow better. They had also caught a few spelling errors (e.g. “Doing this could possible [possibly] help the company realize…”). In regards to the professor’s feedback, I added more information taken straight from the text to better back up my claims. I also fix the colloquialism in the intro paragraph, which I had no idea was a colloquialism to begin with. All the comments in reference to sentences that were not clear were better explained with quotes and explanations of those quotes.

References Bok, Sissela. Whistleblowing and Professional Responsibility. New York University Education Quarterly. 1980. Print Larmer, Robert A. Whistleblowing and Employee Loyalty. Journal of Business Ethics. Vol 11. 1992. Print...