MBA 740: BUSINESS ETHICS Nicos Rodosthenous PhD Lecture 4 7/7/20151Dr Nicos Rodosthenous

How businesses fulfil moral obligations 1. Whistleblowing Overview Whistleblowing is when a worker reports suspected wrongdoing at work. Officially this is called ‘making a disclosure in the public interest’. A worker can report things that aren’t right, are illegal or if anyone at work is neglecting their duties, including: 7/7/20152Dr Nicos Rodosthenous

How businesses fulfil moral obligations someone’s health and safety is in danger damage to the environment a criminal offence the company isn’t obeying the law (like not having the right insurance) covering up wrongdoing 7/7/20153Dr Nicos Rodosthenous

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How businesses fulfil moral obligations 2. How to 'blow the whistle‘ The way a worker can ‘blow the whistle’ on wrongdoing depends on whether they feel they can tell their employer. 1. The worker should check their employment contract or ask human resources/personnel if their company has a whistleblowing procedure. 7/7/20155Dr Nicos Rodosthenous

How businesses fulfil moral obligations 2. If they feel they can, they should contact their employer about the issue they want to report. 3. If they can’t tell their employer, they should contact a prescribed person or body.prescribed person or body A worker can only tell the prescribed person or body if they think their employer: 7/7/20156Dr Nicos Rodosthenous

How businesses fulfil moral obligations  will cover it up  would treat them unfairly if they complained  hasn’t sorted it out and they’ve already told them. Example Laura knows the director of her bank is stealing clients’ money - she reports it to the Financial Conduct Authority, not her employer. 7/7/20157Dr Nicos Rodosthenous

How businesses fulfil moral obligations Whistleblowing in Northern Ireland The process in Northern Ireland is different. Download the guidance for more information. Download the guidance 3. Dismissals and whistleblowing A worker can’t be dismissed because of whistleblowing. If they are, they can claim unfair dismissal - they’ll be protected by law as long as certain criteria are met. 7/7/20158Dr Nicos Rodosthenous

How businesses fulfil moral obligations 3.1. Types of whistleblowing eligible for protection These are called ‘qualifying disclosures’. They include when someone reports: 1)that someone’s health and safety is in danger 2)damage to the environment 3) a criminal offence 7/7/20159Dr Nicos Rodosthenous

How businesses fulfil moral obligations 4) that the company isn’t obeying the law (like not having the right insurance) 5) that someone’s covering up wrongdoing. 4. Who is protected The following people are protected: a) Employees b) Agency workers 7/7/201510Dr Nicos Rodosthenous

How businesses fulfil moral obligations c) people that are training with an employer, but not employed d) self-employed workers, if supervised or working off-site. A worker will be eligible for protection if they honestly think what they’re reporting is true and-in good faith- and they think they’re telling the right person. 7/7/201511Dr Nicos Rodosthenous

How businesses fulfil moral obligations From 25 June 2013 a new law says that a whistleblower should also believe that their disclosure is in the public interest. The new law also says that workers who work under certain contractual arrangements, e.g. dentists, are also covered by the protections. 5. Who isn’t protected Workers aren’t protected from dismissal if: 7/7/201512Dr Nicos Rodosthenous

How businesses fulfil moral obligations 1) they break the law when they report something (e.g. they signed the Official Secrets Act or the Official Statement of the conflict of interests) 2) they found out about the wrongdoing when someone wanted legal advice (legal professional privilege) e.g. if they’re a solicitor. 3) Workers who aren’t employees can’t claim unfair dismissal becauseemployees 7/7/201513Dr Nicos Rodosthenous

How businesses fulfil moral obligations of whistleblowing, but they’re protected and can claim ‘detrimental treatment’. 6. Tribunals Workers dismissed for whistleblowing can go to an Employment Tribunal or an industrial tribunal in Northern Ireland.Employment Tribunal If the tribunal decides the employee has been unfairly dismissed, it will order that they are: 7/7/201514Dr Nicos Rodosthenous

How businesses fulfil moral obligations  reinstated (get their job back)  paid compensation  From 25 June 2013 a tribunal judge can reduce any compensation awarded by 25% if they find the person has acted dishonestly.  A whistleblower who is bullied at work will also be able to bring a claim to the Employment Tribunal against their employer or co-workers. 7/7/201515Dr Nicos Rodosthenous

How businesses fulfil moral obligations 7. Whistleblowing abroad Workers are protected from unfair treatment even if they blow the whistle on something that happened abroad. This includes when a different country’s law has been or will be broken. 8. When might Whistleblowing be justified? 9. Whistleblowing: a positive or negative force in society. (Assignment) 7/7/201516Dr Nicos Rodosthenous

How businesses fulfil moral obligations 7/7/201517Dr Nicos Rodosthenous protection-for-whistleblowers-in-cyprus/ protection-for-whistleblowers-in-cyprus/ Case Study 75.html 75.html

How businesses fulfil moral obligations 10. Values and heuristics and Buying Power Definition of heuristics: involving or serving as an aid to learning, discovery, or problem-solving by experimental and especially trial-and-error methods ;trial-and-error Also : of or relating to exploratory problem- solving techniques that utilize self-educating techniques (as the evaluation of feedback) to improve performance feedback 7/7/201518Dr Nicos Rodosthenous

How businesses fulfil moral obligations Example: If Orbitz prevails, its online reservation process alone may blow away the competition. Unlike mainframe-based systems …, Orbitz uses racks of PCs to search fare data, making it easier to scale up computing power. Its intelligent … algorithms evaluate all the possible fares simultaneously instead of employing heuristic shortcuts designed to use as little computing power as possible. —Evan Ratliff, WIRED, September /7/201519Dr Nicos Rodosthenous

How businesses fulfil moral obligations Because today, many companies or users receive a large volume of and because legitimate may also fall into the pattern, heuristics software sometimes results in many "false positives," discouraging its use. Security experts note that, although such software needs to get better, it is a valuable and necessary tool. 7/7/201520Dr Nicos Rodosthenous