Whistleblowing for ICT Professionals

Running head: LITERATURE SURVEY
Literature Survey
Topic: Whistleblowing for ICT professionals
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Definition and explanation the topic......................................................................................3
Explain how the topic operates..............................................................................................5
Beneficiaries of the topic.......................................................................................................9
Who is negatively affected by the topic?.............................................................................12
How society needs to deal with the topic into the future?...................................................14
Specific challenges faced by information systems professionals........................................15
Conclusion 500.........................................................................................................................16
References................................................................................................................................19

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Introduction
Whistleblowing in any organization is a common phenomenon that occurs under a lot
of implications of the ethical considerations from the workplaces. This is usually the
phenomenon where an employee or any person associated with an organization discloses the
information about any incident occurring within the organization that is suspected to be of
any sort of wrongdoings at work or potential danger (Hussien and Yamanaka 2017). In ICT
organizations as well, this phenomenon is often seen. Organizations are often encouraging to
the occurrence of whistleblowing phenomenon since these are the essential occurrences of
sharing knowledge about any misconduct in the organizations. Not sharing any kind of
information about the wrongdoings in the organization results to ignorance big potential
threat to the organization. Therefore, it is the primary duty of anybody associated with an
organization to report or share the knowledge of any wrongdoings within the organization,
even if it is of the littlest severity to avoid any sort of humongous problem.
There are various researches against the phenomenon of the whistleblowing activities
in ICT organizations according to their ethical considerations. These researches have
presented two kinds of inferences where it needs to be justified if the whistle-blowers in an
ICT organization to find out if they need to be rewarded or need to punished for presenting
the knowledge about the wrongdoings in the organization (Vandekerckhove 2018). Their
roles within an organization need to be clarified on the basis of their sharing of information.
The research also suggest that before taking any action over the knowledge shared about the
wrongdoings in the organizations, to check if the shared knowledge is viable enough to take
any action against it. If the whistle-blowers mean the best for the organizations, they would
be considered as the best resources the organization has besides their designated working
structures, and if not, it needs to be further analysed if these are not looked carefully into.

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Therefore, the following would analyse the researches presented on peer reviewed
articles about the same topic to find out the ethical considerations of the whistle-blowers and
how they should be treated within an ICT organization based on the viability of the
information they share (Kossow 2018). These are to be justified in the following review of
the relevant literatures based on specific aspects. These would include, the definition and the
explanation of the topic about the activity of whistleblowing in an ICT organization, the
operation of the activity of whistleblowing in an organization, the people who would be
affected positively about the outcomes of the activity, the people who would be negatively
about the activity of whistleblowing, how the society needs to deal with the situation in the
near future and the specific challenges that are faced by the professionals in Information
System.
Definition and explanation the topic
Whistleblowing activity in any organization can be defined as the act of reporting any
activity involving the wrongdoings in any organization that has the potential to destroy the
organization. The reporting of the incidences or the knowledge of the misconduct in an
organization that may cause discrepancy within the organization if not attended to as soon as
the knowledge is shared is known as whistleblowing (Farkas 2017). The person associated
with the organization who would share the knowledge or report about the wrongdoings would
be considered as the whistle-blower.
The act of Whistleblowing in an ICT organisation mostly related to the conduct of a
staff or a manager but can also be related to the actions of the wrong doings of a third party
such as the service provider, customer or even a supplier. The legislative instructions about
the whistle-blowers in every organisation relates to the reason of a concern of a third party or
even the managers or the staff which is related to something that is legally proven to be an

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irresponsibility on the part of the person performing the actions which would be harmful to
the entire organisation (Rogerson 2018). However it must be clarified that there is a strong
difference between making a normal complaint and blowing the whistle. Making of generic
complaint is completely related to an individual personally. This can either be any unfair
treatment it that the person has received from that colleague for any breach of contract from
the part of the employers. However, in consequence, the individual also needs to have an
interest on the outcome of the complaint. This should be normally treated in the form of a
grievance from the individual which is completely different from the actions of a whistle-
blower which normally relates to something which is not personally impacted upon the
individual blowing the whistle but has a direct impact on the employer, which is the
organisation or third party, which could be the customers, service provider or suppliers.
There are different kinds of protection and laws that are provided to the
whistleblowers in case of an incidence in an ICT organisation. This has been clarified under
the Employment Rights Act 1996, which states that when any person within a specific
organisation blow the whistle, that is reports of share the knowledge about some wrongdoings
within the organisation, they would be the ones to receive complete protection from the
outcomes of the incident and they would be saved from being dismissed or victimized
(Lomas 2016). Since they are the person considered as the main informant of the wrong
doing, the wrongdoers may target the particular individual and might also be trying to hurt
them. This protection is the legal right of any whistleblower and it is stated that the dismissal
of a whistleblower employee or any whistleblower person attached to the organisation cannot
be dismissed until and unless the information is proven to be wrong.
There is another clarification regarding the act of whistleblowing is about the
provided information. This information should always be taken into public interest and must

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be treated seriously not regarding as a trivial matter (Monk and Ramsay 2017). It can occur
that the whistleblowing activity is reporting against any criminal activity, danger to the health
and safety, miscarriages of justice, failure of complying with the legal obligation of any
regulatory requirement, damage to the environment, financial fraud, and bribery or even miss
management.
For gaining the protection, the wizard low need to make sure that any knowledge
shared against the wrongdoings are made to the employer of that particular individual, any
responsible person where the individual has complete trust in in about the discreteness of the
information comma for a prescribed person who is defined by the statuette and the person to
whom the information is being shared to believe that the whistleblower is providing
substantially true knowledge (Ramsay and Monk 2017). However, it is also not true that the
disclosures are only limited to the three particular types as mentioned above.
Explain how the topic operates
The act of whistleblowing in the ICT organisations has been increased in a huge
number and it is recorded in almost every month each year. Businesses are taking the act of
whistleblowing extremely seriously, especially in the ICT organisations. Many organisations
take the act of internal whistleblowing to any higher management to be extremely disloyal.
Even then it cannot be treated as a breach of the common law duty of an employee of
confidence and fidelity (Gotterbarn 2016). On the other hand the internal reporting of an
individual can offer and advantage for both the employees as well as the employers. The
employers are provided with the opportunity of dealing with the problem without any
external pressure on them or having to handle the entire situation publicly. From the point of
view of an employee, when a whistle is externally being blown it can be seen as an adversary
and this phenomenon mostly has a potential of suffering retaliation. The management level