Organisational Whistleblowing Policies: Making Employees Responsible or Liable?

Abstract

whistleblowing, moral autonomy, ethical distance, moral agency,

Risky Rescues and the Duty to Blow the Whistle

“…In this sense, whistleblowers and legislation protecting them can be regarded as the embodiment of that positive right. However, as we argued earlier and elsewhere (Tsahuridu and Vandekerckhove, 2008) this positive right as a demand of society on organizations might very well imply positive duties on whistleblowers. These positive duties reflect society's demand on whistleblowers to warn it (demand ten) and the demand by organizations on whistleblowers to warn its management (demand eleven).…”

“…It is also important to be able to clearly and accurately identify all those who know and ought to have known, something that is difficult in organizations. If a positive duty to blow the whistle would be imposed, it follows that the individual would have the burden of proving his or her ignorance of the wrongdoing (Tsahuridu and Vandekerckhove, 2008). Let us suppose a situation in which employees would have a civil liability for workplace malpractice in relation to health and safety regulations.…”

“…In addition to knowledge, the whistleblower, as a member of the organization, may have participated in these activities. Recently, Tsahuridu and Vandekerckhove (2008) argued that in order to secure the right to whistleblowing, organizations must implement internal procedures enabling employees to raise concerns internally but by establishing these procedures, employees become morally compelled to blow the whistle. Hence, an important question that remains unresolved in the moral and legal spheres and is addressed in this article is whether the whistleblower has the right to blow the whistle or whether the whistleblower has the duty to blow the whistle.…”

Managing unethical behavior in organizations: The need for a behavioral business ethics approach

“…For example, Vandekerckhove and Commers (2004) use the descriptive research to argue how the debate around loyalty was a mistaken one. Also, descriptive ethics research is used to provide complexity to normative prima facie positions on whether whistleblowing is a right or a duty, and what the implications are for implementing such policies (Tsahuridu & Vandekerckhove, 2008;Vandekerckhove & Tsahuridu, 2010).…”

The Content of Whistleblowing Procedures: A Critical Review of Recent Official Guidelines

“…Hassink et al (2007) found that a substantial number of internal whistleblowing policies used wording which suggested that raising a concern is compulsory and employees might be held accountable for failing to do doing so. Tsahuridu and Vandekerckhove (2008) and Vandekerckhove and Tsahuridu (2010) have further theorised on this.…”