Ethics

Introduction

This assignment discusses the issues regarding whether Dr. Selva is being a disloyal employee due to the whistle blowing she had done towards the organisation (JHEOA). It also states the ethical and moral issues pertaining towards her actions and the consequences she faces. Lastly, the content highlights the employee obligations, the professionalism of being a doctor, the rights of individual that were breached as well as the doctrines and arguments of the ethical code of conducts.

Whistleblowing

Whistleblowing is the act of reporting about the illegal or unethical activities that were committed (Shaw and Barry, 2010). Whistleblowing can also be defined as “a deliberate act of disclosure that gets onto public record and is made by one who has privileged access to information of an organisation, about non-trivial illegality or other wrongdoing whether actual, suspected or anticipated which is under the control of the organisation, to an external entity that have the potential to resolve the misconduct” (Jubb, 1999). Studies have shown that doctors in general do not blow the whistle as it would be impossible to prove the wrongdoings or that they do not want to cause any trouble, in fear of retribution and fear that no one would support them (Firth-Cozens, 2003). One example of whistleblowing was when Sherron Watkins, employee of Enron reported about the illegal activities that were committed by Andrew Fastow, CFO of Enron in the Enron scandal.

There are few conditions that will influence the behaviour of whistleblowing as suggested by Murphy (1993). The first is the characteristics of the insiders (eg. their social status, professionalism of the individual and level of education). Dr Selva is a professional doctor that has a high level of education. She clearly understands that her duty is to improve the welfare of the Orang Asli. Secondly, the individual whistle blows because their work responsibility is exposed to the wrongdoing. Dr Selva, head of...