Whistleblowers: Ethics in Business

The Problem

You work for a large, successful and powerful corporation that manufactures food and cleaning products for the home and schools. You have worked for the company for 7 years and are in a position now to get a fantastic promotion, which includes getting a huge raise in your salary, your own office, increased vacation time and benefits, and becoming a manager over 10 regional managers. You have worked long and hard at this company and the company has been very happy with your work. The company itself is a world leader in researching, developing, and selling safe products for homes and schools as well as the environment. The company is very respected and is considered one of the best in its field.

You have accidentally stumbled on a difficult situation and do not know what to do. You've discovered that management has overlooked the sale of harmful food products - nothing deadly, but it COULD cause harm, possibly even death to people. If the company's customers knew what these products contained, they would take the company to court.

What do you do? If you tell your superiors about the harmful food products, they may lie to you or you won't get your promotion because you will be considered a troublemaker. In fact, you could even lose your job. If you lose your job this way, it will be very difficult to get another job, especially one that pays as well. On the other hand, if you tell the media about the problem whether secretly or publicly, you are guaranteed to lose your job.

What's the truth in the situation? Was it an accident that these food products were sold? Was it done on purpose? Have there been other situations like this before? Who should you believe? The truth is a complex topic and deserves to be closely examined. The individual pieces of the situation must be looked at separately to make sense out of them, so you can understand the bigger picture in a realistic perspective. There is a lot more to this topic than just a quick decision without reading the facts. We have to come to our own conclusions about what to do and how to proceed.

The Big Question: Should I blow the whistle?