Whistleblowing and Organizational Ethics

Authors

Susan L. Ray, University of Western Ontario

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.