Editing Whistleblowing (section)

===Ethics===
Ethics is the set of moral principles that govern a person's or group's behavior. Deeper questions and theories of whistleblowing and why people choose to do so can be studied through an ethical approach. Whistleblowing is a topic of several myths and inaccurate definitions. Leading arguments in the ideological camp maintain that whistleblowing is the most basic of ethical traits and simply telling the truth to stop illegal harmful activities or fraud against the government/taxpayers.<ref name="Delmas2015">{{Cite journal |last1=Delmas |first1=Candice |year=2015 |title=The Ethics of Government Whistleblowing |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/DELTEO-20 |journal=Social Theory and Practice |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=77–105 |doi=10.5840/soctheorpract20154114 |jstor=24332319|s2cid=146469089 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Alford |first1=C. Fred |year=2001 |title=Whistleblowers and the Narrative of Ethics |journal=Journal of Social Philosophy |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=402–418 |doi=10.1111/0047-2786.00103}}</ref> In the opposite camp, many corporations and corporate or government leaders see whistleblowing as being disloyal for breaching confidentiality, especially in industries that handle sensitive client or patient information.<ref name="Delmas2015" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Firtko |first1=A. |last2=Jackson |first2=D. |year=2005 |title=Do the ends justify the means? Nursing and the dilemma of whistleblowing |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/7280254 |journal=The Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=51–6 |pmid=16496818 |hdl=10822/979112}}</ref> Hundreds of laws grant protection to whistleblowers, but stipulations can easily cloud that protection and leave them vulnerable to retaliation and sometimes even threats and physical harm. However, the decision and action has become far more complicated with recent advancements in technology and communication.<ref name="Delmas2015" />

The ethical implications of whistleblowing can be negative as well as positive. Some have argued that public sector whistleblowing plays an important role in the democratic process by resolving [[principal–agent problem]]s.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Coyne|first1=Christopher J.|last2=Goodman|first2=Nathan|last3=Hall|first3=Abigail R.|date=22 December 2018|title=Sounding the Alarm: The Political Economy of Whistleblowing in the US Security State|url=https://www.degruyter.com/view/journals/peps/25/1/article-20180024.xml|journal=Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy|volume=25|issue=1|doi=10.1515/peps-2018-0024|s2cid=158778276}}</ref> However, sometimes employees may blow the whistle as an act of revenge. [[Rosemary O'Leary]] explains this in her short volume on a topic called guerrilla government. "Rather than acting openly, guerrillas often choose to remain "in the closet", moving clandestinely behind the scenes, salmon swimming upstream against the current of power. Over the years, I have learned that the motivations driving guerrillas are diverse. The reasons for acting range from the [[altruistic]] (doing the right thing) to the seemingly petty (I was passed over for that promotion). Taken as a whole, their acts are as awe-inspiring as saving human lives out of a love of humanity and as trifling as slowing the issuance of a report out of spite or anger."<ref>{{Cite book|title = The Ethics of Dissent: Managing Guerrilla Government|last = O'Leary|first = Rosemary|publisher = CQ|year = 2006|location = Washington D.C.}}</ref> For example, of the more than 1,000 whistleblower complaints that are filed each year with the [[Office of the Inspector General of the United States Army|Pentagon's Inspector General]], about 97 percent are not substantiated.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2016/04/25/commander-of-bin-laden-raid-blasts-senate-for-disrespecting-military-leaders/|title=Commander of bin Laden raid blasts Senate for disrespecting military leaders|newspaper=Washington Post}}</ref> It is believed throughout the professional world that an individual is bound to secrecy within their work sector. Discussions of whistleblowing and employee loyalty usually assume that the concept of loyalty is irrelevant to the issue or more commonly, that whistleblowing involves a moral choice that pits the loyalty that an employee owes an employer against the employee's responsibility to serve the public interest.<ref name="Larmer-1992">{{Cite journal | doi=10.1007/BF00872319 | title=Whistleblowing and employee loyalty| journal=Journal of Business Ethics| volume=11| issue=2| pages=125–128| year=1992| last1=Larmer| first1=Robert A.|jstor=25072254|hdl=10822/853647| s2cid=145249571| url=https://philarchive.org/rec/LARWAE}}</ref> Robert A. Larmer describes the standard view of whistleblowing in the ''[[Journal of Business Ethics]]'' by explaining that an employee possesses prima facie (based on the first impression; accepted as correct until proved otherwise) duties of loyalty and confidentiality to their employers and that whistleblowing cannot be justified except on the basis of a higher duty to the [[Public benefit|public good]].<ref name="Larmer-1992" /> It is important to recognize that in any relationship which demands loyalty the relationship works both ways and involves mutual enrichment.<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Whistleblowing and Employee Loyalty|last = Duska|first = Ronald|date = February 1992|journal = Journal of Business Ethics|url=https://philosophia.uncg.edu/media/phi361-metivier/readings/Duska-Whistle-Blowing%20and%20Loyalty.pdf}}</ref>{{full citation needed|date=January 2020}}

The ethics of [[Edward Snowden|Edward Snowden's]] actions have been widely discussed and debated in news media and academia worldwide.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Friedman |first=Mark |date=2015 |title=Edward Snowden: Hero or Traitor? Considering the Implications for Canadian National Security and Whistleblower Law |url=https://digitalcommons.schulichlaw.dal.ca/djls/vol24/iss1/1/|journal=Dalhousie Journal of Legal Studies |volume=24 |pages=1}}</ref> Snowden released [[Classified information|classified]] intelligence to the American people in an attempt to allow Americans to see the inner workings of the government. A person is diligently tasked with the [[wikt:conundrum|conundrum]] of choosing to be loyal to the company or to blow the whistle on the company's wrongdoing. Discussions on whistleblowing generally revolve around three topics: attempts to define whistleblowing more precisely, debates about whether and when whistleblowing is permissible, and debates about whether and when one has an obligation to blow the whistle.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Issues in Business Ethics|publisher = Springer|year = 2007|pages = 139–147}}</ref>{{full citation needed|date=January 2020}}