Week 4 - Angie Zhang

Angie Zhang

Section A01

Week 4

The article Ethics and “Breaking Bad”: Developing and practicing ethical skills by Amy Block Joy discusses the issue of ethics in society, focusing closely on how it may be influenced by factors such as peer pressure, job security, retaliation, and the relationship with co-workers. She also discusses a time when she was the whistleblower in chapter one of her book Whistleblower. Joy’s article talks about how being able to distinguish what’s right from wrong does not necessarily mean a person will abide by those morals. She supports her idea through research conducted with her students by asking them what they would do if they encountered such situations. The response that Joy received was that her students hesitated when deciding on whether they would confront the person or not, and ultimately indicated that they wouldn’t directly confront the person committing the misconduct. I found this relatable because, depending on the situation, if I were in their shoes, I probably would not confront the person face to face either. I had encountered a similar situation back in middle school when I saw my fellow classmate going through and taking things from my teacher’s desk and drawers while she was out sick. I ended up emailing my teacher to notify her of it because I thought it would be the right thing to do, and my teacher confronted the student and addressed the class about the situation. However, I also ended up getting labeled as a “tattle tale” by that classmate and her friends, who probably hated my guts for the rest of the school year. Going back to Joy’s book, she describes herself as being terrified after “blowing the whistle” because she feared retaliation from her boss and that co-worker, and the fact that she may lose her job, like many of the previous whistleblowers had. This made me feel enraged as well as confused as I do not understand why standing up for what’s right could jeopardize your job. I also found it ridiculous how the police seemed so nonchalant and skeptical about the incident that Joy had reported.

Question:

How can people encourage others to speak up about certain issues such as misconduct? Why exactly does whistleblowing jeopardize one’s career?

References:

Joy, A. B. May, 2014. Ethics and “Breaking Bad”: Developing and practicing ethical skills. Retrieved October 11, 2017.

Joy, Amy Block. Whistleblower. Bay Tree Pub., 2010.

[Digital Image]. (n.d.). Retrieved October 11, 2017 from https://www.standardsuniversity.org/wp-content/uploads/ethics-technology.jpg