Sharon Watkins earned her 15 minutes of fame the honest way, as the Enron employee who blew the lid off of then CEO Ken Lay's debauchery. But for every celebrated whistleblower, there are hundreds who remain in the shadows. And for good Samaritans who do tell their tale, the price they pay can be exorbitant.
Whistleblowers perform in many careers and are found at all levels of an organization: scientists and secretaries, lawyers and paralegals, managers and staff, security personnel and computer specialists, etc. They are as varied in age, ethnic background, education, profession, sex, and income as the population at large.
Whistleblowing is a relatively recent entry into the vocabulary of politics and public affairs, although the type of behavior to which it refers is not wholly new. How is it defined? Whistleblowing refers to a warning issued by a member or former member of an organization to the public about a serious wrongdoing or danger created or concealed within the organization. In a genuine case of whistleblowing, the whistleblower would have to have unsuccessfully utilized all appropriate channels within the organization to right a wrong. Many view whistleblowing as an external action to an unresponsive organization and reporting more as an internal process, done through organizational channels. I believe one would have to
unsuccessfully exhaust all the internal channels of communication before "going public."
When whistleblowing occurs as defined, it is a morally courageous action. When all is said and done, the whistleblower must "blow the whistle" for the right moral reason and/or reasoning. The whistleblower him or herself must be carefully scrutinized. What are the person ...