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Whistleblowing Regulations and Procedures
Whistleblowing, a term coined by Ralph Nadar in the 1970s, refers to when a person reports illicit activity concerning a business or federal agency to a governing body. Whistleblower protection has been the topic of a number of laws and initiatives over the past 20 years. Most significantly, section 1107 of the Sorbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) protects against whistleblowers. Not only are employers required to investigate a complaint, but they are prohibited from retaliating against a complaint. The SOX initiative was enacted in response to the Enron and WorldCom debacles, ostensibly advocating for employees to report misconduct. Prior to the Sorbanes-Oxley act, other measures were taken to protect whistleblowers, the Whistleblower Protection Act of 1989 (which protected whistleblowers employed by the government.)
Although the Sorbanes-Oxley Act was (on the surface) created to protect whistleblowers, the implementation of the measure has been heavily criticized. While it is true that whistleblowers cannot be fired,...
Moreover, SOX stipulates that whistleblower protections are dependent on the state, which adds to the confusion. With the passing of SOX, whistleblowers are required to have legal counsel, which often means that they must go up against highly skilled lawyers in a court of law. Moreover, whistleblowers who report misconduct to the media are not protected by SOX (Dworkin, 2007). Accordingly, it has been argued that "SOX does little to change the hazardous path whistleblowers must tread" (Ramirez, 2007, 193).
Ultimately, instances of whistleblowing are damaging to a company's name and reputation, and so organizations typically enforce procedures designed to prevent whistleblowing before it occurs. This typically involves a high level of transparency between the organization and the employees, encouraging workers to report instances of wrongdoing, discrimination, etc. However, while companies…
References
Dworkin, T.M. (2007). SOX and whistleblowing. Michigan Law Review, 105(8), 1757-1780.
Kessler, L.L., & Yeargain, J.W. (2010). Organizational hostility toward whistleblowers. Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues, 13(1).
Ramirez, M.K. (2007). Blowing the whistle on whistleblower protection. University of Cincinnati Law Review, 183-233.
Tsahuridu, E.E., & Vandekerckhove, W. (2008). Organisational whistleblowing. Journal of Business Ethics, 82(1), 107-118.
Whistleblowing." It explains and analyzes the term "whistleblowing" and takes a look at the various different issues related to it. Whistleblowing The term "Whistleblowing" is any revelation of information by an employee or candidate for employment which the employee or candidate rationally believes evidences one of the following: violation of law, rule, or regulation gross mismanagement gross waste of funds an abuse of authority substantial and specific danger to public health or
PharmaCARE -- Case Review The Stakeholders There are numerous stakeholders and stakeholder groups that are presented in this case. The stakeholders can be thought of in two different primary groups to make the first set of distinctions, internal and external groups. Internal Stakeholders The management team The employees CompCARE and PharmaCARE Investors External Stakeholders Colberian Citizens and Workers The Drugs Patients Employees, Management, and Investors at Wellco Society in General PharmaCARE's Unethical Treatment of the Colberia's PharmaCARE's received support from the Colberia's in
The enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has brought exponentially higher costs of operating to every organization that must comply to its requirements. As many organizations are already quite lean in terms of headcount to minimize costs, many outsource compliance and the resulting business process management (BPO) activities to outsourcing organizations. Ironically legislation meant to bring American companies into higher levels of compliance continues to be one of the most
Whistle Blowing Introduction and History of Whistle Blowing Whistle blowing is the revealing of immoral, illegal or illegitimate deeds to authorities. The authorities may be insiders or from outside the affected organization. Many cases of whistle blowing involve people revealing information to outsiders especially media organizations or pressure groups about an act they consider to be irresponsible, irregular or illegal (Robbins, 1993). Cases of whistle blowing have increased dramatically in the recent
Similarly, employers may take advantage of this lack and not inform workers of their right to knowledge of the company's policies and procedures regarding safety features. It is also possible that individuals, particularly those working on a temporary contract basis, are afraid to be replaced when they raise health and safety concerns. Therefore these individuals prefer to take the risk for the sake of the income generated. In the beach environment
In addition, individuals have ethical decisions when it comes to whistleblowing, because very often, when they bring attention to a problem or concern within an organization, they pay the ultimate price - they lose their jobs, or lose the respect of their peers and management. In this, the organization is to blame, and it indicates the ethics of the organization do not encourage truth and doing the right thing. A