Whistle Blowing at the Workplace
Whistle Blowing at the Workplace
Whistle blowing is an occurrence which occurs when a worker reports suspected wrong doing at work. It is officially referred t o as making disclosure in the public interest. In most cases, whistle blowing Is involved in disclosing matters of corruption, mismanagement,, corruption, illegality and other some other wrong doings(Johnson, 2003).. Over the years, the public value of whistle blowing has been increasing every day thus promoting several governments and federal states tom put in place measures that can ensure that whistle blowers life is not at risk.
In most cases, whistle blowers are faced with numerous challenges among other retaliation effects. It is as a result of this tat most federal governments must act accordingly to safe guard the interests of any whistleblower. In most cases, whistle blowers are often subjected to a lot of retaliation attacks especially from their colleagues. These in most cases make them to fill at ill among the rest of the employees in an organization. In extreme cases, whistle blower may find herself or himself being dismissed altogether for just relaying the correct but painful information.
In order for a whistle blowing activity to be concerned of great importance and value, it is important that it fulfill one of the following either now or in future:
- A criminal offence
- Breach of contract
- Unlawful
- A miscarriage of justice just to mention but a few.
In most cases, whistle blowing activities are common occurrence in publicly traded companies. Some of these companies are privy tom getting advantage as a result of the skip compliance with the securities markets. The most common example of whistle blowing involves Paulson & Co., a hedge fund with financial interests in the transaction directly adverse” to investors in the fund. According to this whistle blowing case, it is believed that there were materially misleading statements of commission and omission that were aimed at evading heavy debts by (“CDO”) Goldman structured and marketed to investors, this was aimed to be concealed with the performance of subprime residential mortgage-backed securities which would be a major cover up (Johnson, 2003).
Whistle blowing is associated with several effects which are both advantageous and disadvantageous to both the whistleblower and the organization in question. For instance, the whistle blower is expected to be treated unfairly from other people within the organization. In extreme cases, the whistleblower may altogether be fired to ensure that he/ she is punished for denying the ’’ bosses’’ un opportunity to eat.
However, it is important to understand that whistle blowing activities are very important as they safeguard the interests of the majority of the public. Most of these people involved in these corrupt and illegal activities are just for their own selfish gains and have no interest of common mwananchi at heart. It is as a result of these acts, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Legal Protection for Corporate Whistleblowers to ensure that those engaged in the activity are not victimized. For instance, this Act is against employment discrimination, posters corporate responsibility, enforces jurisdiction among others (Johnson, 2003).
In conclusion, whistleblowers provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley provide a general framework for ensuring that employees involved in whistle blowing activities are free to deliver information which may be harmful to directors and self minded people but useful to majority but interested people. As a result several federal governments has put in place protective measures tom ensure that the whistleblowers plight is protected at whatever cost.
References
Johnson, R. A. (2003). Whistleblowing: when it works–and why. Boulder: L. Rienner Publishers.
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