Discuss Whether Whistle Blowing Has a Place in Society

Whistle blowing is known as �when an employee reports some wrongdoing to people that have the authority to take correct action, the wrongdoing is usually a disobedience of the rules and is a threat to the public interest through fraud, corruptions and so on’.(www.wikipedia.org). The Public Disclosure Act 1998 came into effect in 1998. Employees were hesitant to speak up about wrongdoing because they were afraid that they would not be listened to or that they would be putting their jobs at risk. The Act allows employees to talk about concerns to do with malpractice without having the fear of dismissal from work.

The article �a former civil servant was sacked by the home office last week (March 11th 2004)’ states the exposure of duplicity and incompetence in the handling of immigration procedure. The news was the immigrants were handed over the visas by cutting corners and violating immigration rules particularly from Eastern European countries. Even though this was a good act performed by the civil servant, it also had its consequence resulting him in losing his job.

There are a few steps whistle blowers should take into consideration when they are about to blow the whistle (How to blow the whistle/Online/Available from http://www.work911.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=4799/Accessed 26th October 2006). Firstly they should never continue with a complaint based just on suspicion or office gossip. The employee should talk to his or her family to gain support and tell them about their decision to blow the whistle. Secondly the whistle blower should always be on guard not to get caught by any member of staff of recording any findings or misconduct. When engaging in any whistle blowing initiatives they should carry them out in their own time not during work because there would be a high chance of getting caught by any other employees. Also he/she should keep a careful record with all the findings before and after they blow the whistle to show proof of what you are blowing the whistle about. He/she should continue to maintain a good relationship with all staff, so that they have no idea that the whistle blower is about to blow the whistle on them.

Therefore whistle blowing has many advantages and disadvantages. There are many benefits if a member of an organization blows the whistle. Firstly it shows the employee who actually blows the whistle is a Good Samaritan and has good intentions. Also if telling superiors the truth about what is happening in the company he or she could be rewarded for coming forward. Another advantage is that it is the best thing to do, to warn others of malpractice and wrong actions from within their company. This is because then other employees would have knowledge about what type of organization they are working for and would have the chance of not being a part of it. Also if an employee does decide to blow the whistle he or she would be protected by the common law against retaliation. Even though in some cases whistle blowers tend to lose their job, in one case from the article �When the truth hurts’ a man named �Arantz’, lost his job after blowing the whistle, however his name was then cleared and was then reinstated into the police force was compensated $250,000 for wrongful dismissal.

The disadvantages of blowing the whistle are firstly the employee losing their job. If the employee loses their job it would be hard for them to find another job, leaving that employee having bleak future prospects, because it would take time and also because other companies would have knowledge about the employee blowing the whistle at their last place of work, so they then might see that employee as a threat and would think twice about hiring that employee. For example this was stated in an article �Lingard V HM Prison Service’.