Ethics and Moral Agency Essay Sample free essay sample

Whistle-blowing is the disclosure by anterior or present employees of the organisation of illicit. dissolute or dishonest Acts of the Apostless under the administration of their employers. to individuals or organisations who can straiten signal ( Near A ; Miceli 1985 ) . Carrying employees to blow the whistling when they are witting of their organisational misdemeanour enforces a constructive responsibility on whistle blowers. a responsibility to make good to others or to set a halt to the injury that the organisation may do to others ( Vandekerckhove A ; Tsahuridu 2010 ) . In July 2005. Singapore revised her codification of Corporate Governance to promote the confession of company whistle-blowing patterns and processs. Harmonizing to the European Corporate Governance Institute ( 2005 ) . policy 12. 7 of the Singapore codification of Corporate Governance states that the Audit Committee should measure the policy and agreements by which employees of the organisation and any other individuals may. in assurance. describe any possible impropernesss in footings of fiscal coverage or other affairs. Whistle-blowing policy should be made known in the company’s Annual Report. and steps for conveying up such concerns should be revealed publically as appropriate. Tsahuridu and Vandekerckhove ( 2008 ) argued that organisations must put to death internal steps to let employees to convey up issues internally so as to procure the right to whistle-blowing. However. by put to deathing these steps. employees are so morally obliged to blow the whistling. In this essay. we will speak about the importance of whistle-blowing. moralss and corporate administration in an organisation. moral bureau and duty every bit good every bit whistle-blowing as an internal control mechanism. Based on all these factors. we will so reason on whether employees should hold a responsibility to blow the whistling on unethical or illegal Acts of the Apostless. IMPORTANCE OF WHISTLE-BLOWING Recent fraud instances in the populace sector and non-profit organisations like National Kidney Foundation every bit good as suspected breaches by Singapore-listed companies such as China Sky Chemical Fibre have highlighted the issue on whistle-blowing. Many of these instances have acknowledged important negative effects of organisational error for victims. such as employees. clients. and society at big. The chief professional organic structure in Singapore. The Institute of Certified Public Accounts of Singapore ( ICPAS ) had alerted companies to set up a civilization of moralss and administration ( Channel News Asia 2012 ) . Organizations should besides stress and establish policies for its employees and external parties to be more observant and describe any misconducts. Modern organisations have become so complex these yearss that it is improbable for foreigners to go cognizant of organisational actions. The society has to trust on inside information from prior or present employees of the organisation. Therefore. the duty of whistle blowers such as Susan Leong in the National Kidney Foundation dirt has become indispensable to the sensing of organisational error. Without whistle blowers. the givers will neer larn of the false declarations and misused of charity financess in the organisation. Since whistle blowers are important. Miceli ( 2008 ) suggests that organisations should happen better processs for back uping appropriate whistle-blowing. Furthermore. the legal domain for whistle-blowing has changed significantly over the old ages. particularly with Singapore implementing Torahs to protect the individualities of whistle blowers. employees should so hold a duty to inform the society of any illicit or unethical Acts of the Apostless by their organ isation. ETHICS A ; CORPORATE GOVERNANCE Ethical motives is defined as being just. and finding between right and incorrect. placing the policies and ordinances that emphasize behaviour between persons and groups ( Connock A ; Jonhns 1995 ) . Every organisation should hold a codification of moralss in topographic point to guarantee that employees purely adhere to the values and beliefs of the company. McNutt ( 2002 ) suggests that a codification of moralss oversee behavior through a set of moral rules or processs that preserve values and beliefs. Harmonizing to Picou and Rubach ( 2006 ) . corporate administration guidelines are a tool where a company can back to cut down organisation costs and better support the involvement of the stockholders and stakeholders. To capitalise on the shareholder’s investing. organisations should supply precise information to stockholders by doing usage of corporate administration mechanisms so that they can make up ones mind on whether to regenerate their contracts with direction ( Wheeler 2002 ) . Ethical motives and corporate administration are hence indispensable in every organisation because they protect the company’s fiscal place ; set up strategic programs and assess employee’s public presentation and behaviour ; guarantee that the company obeys the jurisprudence and protect the involvements of all the stockholders every bit good as the stakeholders. Organizations are advocated to implement whistle-blowing procedures in their codification of moralss so as to construct an ethical environment for their employees. On 26th January 2010. Singapore house Q2 Consulting Partner and United States’ Global Compliance launched a whistle-blowing hotline for employees to describe claims against their ain company ( Channel News Asia 2010 ) . Employees have a pick whether to stay anon. or non when unveiling the contents and probes will so be carried out to authenticate the instance. It is evident that companies in Singapore realized the importance of whistle-blowing as harmonizing to a Global Compliance interpreter. 40 Singapore houses have signed up for the hotline service after the launch ( Channel News Asia 2010 ) . After the dirt of the National Kidney Foundation. there was a monolithic public call and citizens have become disbelieving in donating to charities. Recently launched on 21st August 2012. an moralss hotline by Shared Services for Charities ( SSC ) serves as a new whistle-blowing platform for charities ( Leslie 2012 ) . With these whistle-blowing hotlines in topographic point. employees can now confidently raise any issues that they feel is non morally right in their organisation without endangering their calling or life. Whistle-blowing will so let organisations to observe and rectify any errors before its repute and public trust are damaged. MORAL AGENCY AND RESPONSIBILITY Harmonizing to De George ( 1992 ) . an agent in ethical theory is any single that performs and is expose to ethical regulations. is a rational being. and is non an agent for anyone or anything else. Once an agent accepts an ethical theory. he should be independent and rational. Hence he should move in his best involvements and neer let his actions to be influenced by others. Whistle blowers are considered to be moral agents. and are accountable for their behaviour and actions ( Tsahuridu A ; Vandekerckhove 2008 ) . They should hold a moral duty towards the stockholders and stakeholders by describing the errors of their organisation. They should besides believe in that by making so they would be able to rectify these errors and take their organisation to the right path. hence heightening shareholders’ value. Moral agents should be held morally responsible when they perform the act out of their ain agreement or failed to forestall the act despite cognizing the effects behind it. Attributions of duty are dependent upon a person’s place as a moral agent ( Lisa 2010 ) and they are frequently closely related to ascriptions of penalty. Therefore. Tsahuridu and Vandekerckhove ( 2008 ) suggest that moral bureau plays a critical function for us to size up the undertakings of employees at work and the moral position of whistle-blowing processs. The cardinal construct of moral bureau is moral duty. which means we can keep a moral agent morally accountable for his or her behaviour and actions. Moral bureau can so be used to measure the moral behavior of an agent. One of the standards necessary for moral bureau is the capableness for an person to link in moral traffics based on their moral judgements in advantage of a moral motive ( Lisa 2010 ) . The ability for moral motive involves a general ability to be motivated every bit good as the ability to be motivated by visibly moral grounds and considerations. Lisa ( 2010 ) besides mentioned that an person will be required to get a clearly moral concern. which means that an person should be concerned with what is right or incorrect taking into considerations of the public assistance of other persons in their organisations. their stockholders and stakeholders. The most evident illustration of morally right actions within an organisation are in peculiar those in which an employee’s fortitude to move in conformity with responsibility prevails over their apparent self-interest and apparent desire to make otherwise ( Patrick A ; Charlie 2005 ) . Therefore. employees should be morally compelled to blow the whistling when they witness any organisational error. CONTROL MECHANISM Whistle-blowing has been identified as a control mechanism to support the organization’s long-run involvements and to vouch good corporate administration by debaring unethical behaviour ( Eaton A ; Akers 2007 ) . In recent old ages. instances such as Enron. the National Kidney Foundation. China Aviation Oil etc have intensified the consciousness of whistle-blowing within organisations. Whistle blowers have non merely amplified in figure but besides in significance as a social control mechanism over organisational misbehaviors. Organizations have developed to be so intricate and adept at concealing wrongdoing. that merely employees in the organisation are capable of detecting any errors and uncovering them ( Miethe 1999 ) . Trapp ( 1998 ) besides states that whistle-blower serves a critical demand as an of import cheque on answerability. Legal amendments to promote whistle blowers. such as the add-on of whistle-blowing policy in the Singapore Code of GC. have persuaded organisations to reenforce mechanisms for internal whistle-blowing. Accusations of the occurrences at Enron. the National Kidney Foundation and China Aviation Oil. etc could all have been discovered earlier. if these organisations had reinforce whistle-blowing processs in the first topographic point. Take for illustration the instance of China Aviation Oil. ‘failure at every degree of the company’ caused it to finally to clasp under US $ 550 million of approximate options trading losingss in 2004 ( Quah 2005 ) . A whistle blower would hold been one of the most effectual ways of informing the governments about the error of the company in this instance. Quah ( 2005 ) besides mentioned that the effectivity of whistle-blowing is shocking when it is done right. based on a 2004 study by the Association for Certified Fraud Examiners in the US. about 40 per cent of frauds were revealed from an insider information. This shows the effectivity of whistle-blowing in exposing any unethical or illegal Acts of the Apostless within an organisation. Time Magazine ( 2002 ) has obviously demonstrated whistle-blowing as an of import internal control mechanism by having three whistle blowers from Enron. WorldCom. and the FBI as Persons of the Year for 2002 ( Patel 2003 ) . Martin A ; Dixon ( 2002 ) have besides province that these episodes in the U. S. have sparked rise involvements in other developed states such as Australia. the U. K. Canada. and France on the topic of whistle-blowing as an internal control mechanism. Whistle-blowing may perchance be a manner of uncovering evildoings in our economic environment where organisations can non be trusted to be ethical. Besides being a control mechanism. whistle-blowing can besides be an effectual path for employees to describe misbehavior or supply feedback to assist better the company and yet remain anon. . The cardinal prevarications in blowing the right whistling. which is besides a challenge for companies to guarantee that their employees understand the mechanism of whistle-blowing.