What is meant by Whistle-blowing? What are the advantages and disadvantages of Whistle-Blowing to organizations? Cite examples.
Whistleblowing is defined as the act of alerting the authorities or the general public of misconducts that are being done within an organization. The misconducts revealed by whistleblowing may include immoral or even illegitimate practices by an organization. The party accused of the misconduct may be individuals in the organization or even the organization itself and the reporting may be within the organization’s hierarchy or outside of the organization (i.e. to the public or other external authorities).
One of the advantages of whistleblowing is that it leads to a reinforcement of ethical behavior among the staff and employees of an organization. This is because the threat of whistleblowing deters any misconduct on the part of employees or the organization since they understand that violations could be revealed with dire consequences. In addition to this, whistle-blowing can lead to damage control or even curtailing of an issue before it becomes a major disaster. This is especially the case when internal whistleblowing in an organization is practiced. By doing this, shareholders or other company personnel can be made aware of corruption or even fraud therefore enabling them to undertake remedial action before the problem becomes a public issue.
Despite the evident merits of whistle-blowing, there are some major disadvantages to the practice. One of the major demerits is to the whistleblower who may be forced to leave the organization due to retaliation by coworkers or even his/her employees. While the United States does have laws in place that prevent the suffering of whistleblowers, many countries lack such laws and as such, the whistleblower may incur great personal risks or even death as a result of their choice to whistle blow. Whistleblowing may also lead to the wrongful damaging of a company’s reputation especially if the whistleblower’s information is from rumors or other noncredible sources. In such cases, reporting may lead to the unnecessary loss of livelihood for other employees of the organization due to baseless allegations.
A recent example of whistleblowing was the leaking of videos that showed the killing of Iraqis by military personnel from the US to the press. This video was leaked to the press by an anonymous whistleblower whose aim was to reveal this misconduct in Iraq. The purpose of the report was to elicit public outcry on the issue and therefore lead to changes.
What is the difference between positive and negative emotions? Please explain with realistic examples.
Emotions are intense reactions (mostly of a short-lived nature) that may affect the work behavior of a person. Positive emotions include; happiness and pride while negative emotions include; fear, anger, and guilt. While most organizations do not take into consideration the role these emotions play, employees in all organizations have to cope with both negative and positive emotions in their everyday work experience. Positive and negative emotions in an organization have differing sources in an organization.
Positive emotions such as enthusiasm and joy may spring from doing one’s job and enjoying the same. Negative emotions such as anger can be a result of work interruptions or heavy workloads which will inevitably result in inefficiency by the employee. While negative emotions lead to workplace deviance, positive emotions result in better cognitive functioning and psychological health. As such, positive emotions may lead to a higher quality of life than negative emotions
In an organization, negative emotions are a result of not being able to work professionally due to reasons such as interruption. This leads to one not identifying with the organization and can result from withdrawal from the organization. On the other hand, Positive emotions are derived from succeeding in achieving goals and are associated with a strong engagement in the tasks that one involves themselves in. They lead to a stronger identification with the organization and hence loyalty.
While negative emotions are characterized by dejection and lack of creativity, positive emotions have been credited with enlarging people’s capacity to generate ideas or come up with an alternative course of action. This generally contributes to the overall well-being of an organization since innovation is key to an organization’s success. For example, if one is enthusiastic about the project that he/she is undertaking in the job, this emotion may neutralize negative feelings that the same person may have as a result of injustice or lack of compassion by the manager of the company.