WHISTLE BLOWING: WHAT DO CONTEMPORARY ETHICAL THEORIES SAY?

Mpho Bosupeng

Studies in Business and Economics, 2017, vol. 12, issue 1, 19-28

Abstract: The rising number of scandals leading to the closure of many large companies is worrisome. The traditional belief is that business and ethics are oxymorons and one is not expected to be totally virtuous during business operations. Nonetheless, this does not mean ethical standards should be side-lined. Professional associations such as the Chartered Financial Institute (CFA) uphold moral values and urge members to exercise high moral standards and diligence in their duties. Philosophically, major accounting scandals could have been nipped in the bud by whistle blowing before the wrong deeds escalated. However whistle blowing is a major issue and is viewed as disloyalty. In this paper, the dilemmas of whistle blowing are evaluated using contemporary ethical theories which are: egoism, deontology and utilitarianism. The analysis shows that deontology and utilitarianism are based on altruism and may support whistle blowing because they are grounded on consideration of other people. It is worth noting that morally upright adults are often a result of being brought up as ethical children from a psychological standpoint.

Keywords: whistle blowing; business ethics; egoism; deontology; utilitarianism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://eccsf.ulbsibiu.ro/RePEc/blg/journl/12102bosupeng.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:blg:journl:v:12:y:2017:i:1:p:19-28

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Studies in Business and Economics from Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, Faculty of Economic Sciences Dumbravii Avenue, No 17, postal code 550324, Sibiu, Romania. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Mihaela Herciu ().