Whistleblowing

Whistleblowing is an act of disclosing the wrongdoings of an employee or a group of employees who are usually part of the higher management of a government agency or a private enterprise to the public or relevant authority. These wrongdoings include mismanagement of funds, corruption, illegality or some other wrongdoing. A whistle blower is a person who exposes any kind of information that is deemed illegal and unethical as mentioned above to the relevant authority.

As an employee of a company, individuals are always instructed to act in the best interest of the company. Even in the employment contract that is signed by an individual prior to joining the company, it is clearly stated that as an employee, he or she must always act in the best interest of the company and shall not disclose private and confidential information to outsiders.

Friedman’s Shareholders Theory argues that employees do have obligation to their employers. For example, if an individual were to work for someone, the employer has almost certainly hired that individual for a specific purpose namely to help out in the business and serve the employer’s interest. In short, when an individual is hired by an employer, they enter into some form of contract with their employer; to the effect that they agree to work towards the interest of the business and employer and in return the individual will be compensated accordingly. They have entrusted that individual and hired them. By becoming a whistle blower, the individual is not serving the purpose of why is he hired. Another example would be the government and citizen of the country. The government provide the citizen with certain goods and services (i.e. public safety, national security, road system, currency, clean water and etc.). In exchange, the citizen owes them loyalty and that’s the reason citizen has certain obligation