Business Ethics: Whistleblowing

GAP’s mission is to protect the public interest by promoting government and corporate accountability. The non-profit group offers a number of online resources for whistleblowers, as well as running the whistleblower support network, where individuals who are considering blowing the whistle are able to contact former whistleblowers to seek confidential advice and guidance.

This non-profit organization provides a resources on the topic of whiestleblowing, including a “law library” of relevant cases and regulations that protect whistleblowers, a blog, as well as a online program where individuals can submit a summary of their issue and have it reviewed by a staff attorney who will get back to you with advice on how to proceed.

The Whistleblower Support Fund seeks to provide support to whistleblowers through strategic counsling, emotional and professional support, referral to attorneys and journalists, and technical assistance to meritorious whistleblowers. Teh web site includes news updates on recent whistleblowing cases and legislation, as well as an archive which is a digital library of documents, articles, videos and other materials regarding whistleblowing and whistleblowing cases.

How should a management hire react upon discovering animal cruelty in the workplace?

Are whistleblowers always heroes? A case about an engineer who suspects his employer of selling defective computer chips.

Chantale Leroux, a clerk at Avco Environmental Services which specializes in toxic waste disposal, has recently come across documentation that seems to show that Avco has been disposing of medical waste from a customer in a local landfill. When she shows her supervisor the evidence, she is told to drop it. What should she do?

What went wrong at WorldCom? Sweetheart loans to executives and a growth-through-acquisitions strategy are suggested as contributors to this business scandal.

When Time magazine editors named WorldCom's Cynthia Cooper and Enron's Sherron Watkins two of their People of the Year for 2002, they were acknowledging the importance of internal whistleblowers—employees who bring wrongdoing at their own organizations to the attention of superiors.

An article by C.K. Gunsalus about the pressures faced by individuals who are thinking about blowing the whistle on potential misconduct or fraud, and how to conduct professional disputes in a professional manner.

An article by Michael Davis discussing how individuals and organizations can avoid having to resort to whistleblowing.