Does Whistle Violate Company Loyalty

Whistleblowing in the workplace is a major topic of discussion, and I believe that it does not break company loyalty. If there is a problem in the workplace, I believe that if it is so serious that an employee feels that it should be taken to the public, then it must be given attention. In many cases, minor and major issues in the workplace go unnoticed due to managers and owners not paying enough attention to their staff.
It is the highest level of loyalty when an employee wants to address the problems they face in the company, and want to help correct them. A major misunderstanding about whistleblowers is that they intend to hurt the company, when they are actually attempting to repair it. Robert Larmer, a journalist of business ethics, …show more content…
The nature of whistleblowing according to philosopher Sissela Bok from “Does Blowing the Whistle Violate Company Loyalty?” results in 3 elements of bitterness which includes: “dissent, breach of loyalty, and accusation” (Bok 178). The way I view the yes side of the whistleblowing debate is that you have to put yourself in the shoes of the owner or boss of the workplace. If one of your employees had an issue, and decided to go straight to the public and expose your company, you would not see it as loyal behavior. In order to resolve problems, you would want to keep it within the company and resolve it on your own. Whenever there is a problem relating to a company, they want as little attention as possible. For one of your employees to completely ignore the fact of how much work and effort you put into your work or business does not seem very loyal. Hard work and secrets that were meant to stay within a workplace, and for it to just be said to the public in order to correct issues can be seen as a sign of disrespect. The employee has so little confidence or resource that they find the need to have to bring in a third party and the public to expose or correct the issue does not seem like something a loyal employee would do. The employee or worker that whistleblows can be seen as disrespectful and lacking loyalty whether or not the person chooses to stay or leave the …show more content…
In the article “Does Blowing the Whistle Violate Company Loyalty?” there is a section that discusses moral choices and loyalty. Bok quoted from the article that, “Dissent by whistleblowers, first of all, is expressly claimed to be intended to benefit the public” (Bok 180). Whistleblowing is intended for the public to hear in order to build credibility and reliability. How can a problem be fixed if it is never brought up? A chain of command, which is defined as an order of authority and power organized, would usually be the answer to a majority of problems in the workplace. The issue is that when the chain of command fails or treats certain employees unfairly, not many other options are available. That is why whistleblowing is done, to fix issues as a last resort. Employees risk their jobs by going to the media and expressing the issues they deal with their workplace. Loyalty is clearly shown when an employee wants to fix an issue within the company, while they are still employed by the company and risk losing their position. Bok says in, “Does Blowing the Whistle Violate Company Loyalty?” that there is a lot of responsibility when choosing to whistleblow such as in, “It carries with it, as a results an obligation to consider the nature of this benefit and to consider also the possible harm that may come from speaking out, harm to persons or institutions” (Bok