TOPIC ~

LOYALTY TO A COMPANY

LOYALTY IS VITAL FOR A HAPPY MARRIAGE

LOYALTY IN THE WORKPLACE

Do you think loyalty is important in the YES workplace? Employers value and expect loyalty from their employees. Loyalty designates the moral obligation of employees: 1. To discharge their duties competently. 2. Obey the legitimate orders of their Superiors. 3. Keep proprietary information and trade secrets confidential. 4. Avoid any conduct that is in conflict with the companys rightly interests. 3

WHAT LOYALTY MEANS

Loyalty is required from an employee by an employer. Loyalty is a prized virtue. Moral obligation - expectations are essence of the employment contract. Employee will not share confidential information with outsiders. Subject to disciplinary action. To shed light on matters related to loyalty: 1. Are these restrictions limited? 2. Can companies compel managers to sign agreements that appear to be all-inclusive in restricting outside activities? Doubtful - companies have the right to insist. 4

WHISTLE-BLOWING
A Whistle-blower, in the business world, is one who reports on fellow employees, supervisors or company officers illegal or immoral actions. Divided into two categories: 1. Internal Whistle-blowing - accusation made within the company. 2. External Whistle-blowing - accusation reported to other people e.g. government authorities or the media. A. When is whistle-blowing morally justified? 5 B. Is it morally obligatory?

INTERNAL WHISTLE-BLOWING
Have good reasons to suspect that the manager is doing any one of the following: 1. Falsifying expense accounts; 2. Taking bribes from the suppliers; 3. Using companys resources or equipment for personal use; 4. Stealing supplies and materials from the company; 5. Working for a competitor. Mark of loyalty to your company to blow the whistle on the manager - obviously doing an illegal action. Will you blow the whistle? YES
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Criteria of Justification for Internal Whistle-blowing

CRITERIA OF JUSTIFICATION
Significant Harm Accurate Facts Should be evident. Be sure of the facts. EXPLANATION

Already known by the Management

Reasonable expectation Impact on oneself

Try to find out whether the suspects activity is already known by management.
Reasonable expectations that blowing the whistle will be effective; Supervisor will put a stop. - Has to consider possible damage to his own reputation. - Will the action be seen as a mark of loyalty, or trivial talk, or an act of spite, chance to smear a rival for promotion - Troublemaker? - Confronting the suspect with his wrongdoing might stop it. - Who has the primary obligation to watch out. - Investigate any questionable action by any employee.

Moral Obligation

Criteria of Justification for External Whistle-blowing

CRITERIA OF JUSTIFICATION
Internal report of wrongful conduct EXPLANATION - Ensure that effort has to be made to report wrongful conduct internally, through proper lines of organisation. - Company should have a chance to clean up its act before it goes public. - Must be evident that external agencies are unable or unwilling to report what is going on.

External agencies

- Harmful to stockholders, employees or the public Significant case of e.g. fraud, embezzlement, unsafe working conditions, harm illegal dumping of hazardous materials. Degree of harm
Degree of harm that the company will suffer as a result of the whistle-blowing. - Should be proportionate to the harm its wrongdoing is causing. - Only when these conditions are satisfied, would external whistle-blowing be justified.
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 Preventing and stopping wrongdoing lies with a degree of supervision. The more responsibilities a manager has for company operations, the stronger the obligation. Manager obliged to report wrongdoing to outsiders only if serious harm is at issue. If it is evident that appropriate levels of supervision are unable to stop it. In the US, government employees who blow the whistle are protected by law against retaliation. Private sector, regarded as informers.
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Morality of termination whistle-blowers

Can companies fire, demote, cut short careers of whistle-blowers? NO No legitimate grounds to discipline them so long as the cases are genuine. However, a company can take action for the following reasons: 1. Lied about a case; 2. As an act of revenge; 3. As a protest over an unfavourable company policy; 4. To discredit a rival for the purpose of promotion.

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IMPROPER LOYALTY
Does loyalty means covering up for the boss serious mistakes or wrongdoing? No Violation of duty to cover up.
A subordinate: Has to carry out the legitimate orders of his supervisor and keep him informed about the progress of his work or task. May even be obliged to tell the Supervisor about the actions of other persons or groups that may adversely affect the bosss operations. Wrongdoing by his boss should NOT be 12 ignored.

SUMMARY OF TOPIC ~
LOYALTY TO A COMPANY
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Employers value and expect loyalty from their employees.

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Employees have a moral obligation to be loyal to their employers by doing their job competently, obeying the legitimate orders of the supervisors, keeping company information and trade secrets confidential, and avoiding acts that conflicts with a companys rightful interests.

Employers should not ask managers to show their loyalty by committing illegal or immoral actions, engaging in deceitful advertising, or harassing, demoting, or even firing employees for non-jobrelated reasons.
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The obligation to blow the whistle internally depends on who has primary responsibility for discovering and investigating an employees questionable actions.
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An employees immediate supervisor has to be alert to any seriously questionable actions a subordinate might perform. A companys security organisation, if it has one, is responsible for helping to protect the companys assets.
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A decision to blow the whistle externally, to some outside party, is justifiable when all the conditions for internal whistle-blowing have been satisfied, and if the company supervision knows about but refuses to take action to remedy the harm posed to the interests of the shareholders, employees or the public.
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There is no moral justification for firing whistle-blowers who uncover cases of wrongdoing that involve serious harm to people or the environment that could not have been prevented through the usual company channels. To do so would be to unjustly punish someone for doing what is morally right.
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Loyalty is sometimes mistakenly taken to mean covering up for a Supervisors errors or wrongdoing.
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THE END OF TOPIC ~

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