Nursing Publications
Title
Whistleblowing and Organizational Ethics
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
7-1-2006
Journal
Nursing Ethics
Volume
13
Issue
4
First Page
438
Last Page
445
URL with Digital Object Identifier
10.1191/0969733006ne882oa
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to discuss an external whistleblowing event that occurred after all internal whistleblowing through the hierarchy of the organization had failed. It is argued that an organization that does not support those that whistle blow because of violation of professional standards is indicative of a failure of organizational ethics. Several ways to build an ethics infrastructure that could reduce the need to resort to external whistleblowing are discussed. A relational ethics approach is presented as a way to eliminate the negative consequences of whistleblowing by fostering an interdependent moral community to address ethical concerns.
