Business Ethics Discussion Project on "Whistleblowing"

Each group will be assigned one or more of the cases described in Moral Mazes, Chapter 5. Try to agree on answers to the following questions as they apply to the case(s) you have been given:

1. Did the person have an obligation to "blow the whistle" according to Richard DeGeorge’s criteria (what Davis calls ‘the standard theory’, p. 149)?

2. Did the person have an obligation to "blow the whistle" according to Michael Davis’s ‘complicity theory’ (p. 151)?

3. Did the person have an obligation to "blow the whistle" according to your own judgment?

4. In the circumstances described in Moral Mazes, would it have been reasonable to expect the person to try to resolve the issues internally before going public?

5. How much validity do you find in the reasons given (by some of the managers interviewed by Jackall) for not "blowing the whistle" in this case? (State the reasons, along with your evaluation of them.)

The cases:

1. White (pp. 101-105)

2. Brady (pp. 105-112)

3. Wilson (pp. 112-118)

4. Kelly (pp.121-122)

5. Black (p.122-123)

6. Reed (p.123)

7. Tucker (p.131)